Valve aims to improve Steam discoverability
Changes expected in the next few weeks; Valve still taking feedback from SteamWorks devs
One of the biggest challenges for any developer, whether on mobile or PC, is tackling discoverability. Valve is hoping that by making some changes to its Steam store that it can make this challenge a little bit easier for developers bringing games to its platform. As laid out in a NeoGaf post a couple days ago, SteamWorks developers were recently notified of upcoming changes to the Steam store that should be implemented in the next few weeks. Valve said that the changes, however, are still "subject to change to some degree in response to your feedback and suggestions."
One of the more notable improvements as it relates to discoverability is what Valve is calling "targeted visibility for new releases," which should help the right games get in front of the right customers.
"We'll be making some changes to the initial launch visibility of new titles to better reach appropriate customers. While we previously granted 1M impressions of each new titles on the home page, this approach was not scaling well and was an inefficient method for reaching the right potential customers. Click-through rates for most titles featured in this section were low, and it had become clear that not every new release is relevant to every user. We think we can do better," Valve said.
"With the upcoming changes, newly released titles will appear in a few different ways on the 'New on Steam' page and in the 'New on Steam' Queue. The goal is to reach a more engaged group of customers, and drive more relevant traffic directly to your store page. This change should result in your title appearing to a smaller, but better targeted group of potential customers based on their preferences and tastes. New releases will continue to be recommended to specific users on the Steam Home page and can appear in popular lists if doing well."
The home page will be getting a makeover to remove clutter and use bigger game images as well, while Valve also intends to provide Steam Curators with more options. You can check out the full outline of proposed changes here.