Steam News - AndrewL


July was a busy month for games launching on Steam, so we're presenting another exciting list of Top Releases. With this post, we'll be looking back at the top 20 products released in July, measured by revenue generated during the first two weeks following their release. As always, we will also be looking at the top 5 free-to-play releases, measured by their total unique player counts.

Controller or keyboard & mouse?

July's list features an impressive amount of games with added controller support. Of the Top Releases in July, an overwhelming 19 of them give players an alternative option to the traditional keyboard & mouse experience. Whether you're strapped in with an advanced force-feedback racing wheel for F1® 2020, or just plugging in your favorite console controller to relax on the couch with Destroy All Humans!, gone are the days of downloading added software or spending time configuring and calibrating your device. For players, it's pretty much as easy as making sure your favorite controller is charged up. For developers, it's become more and more important to consider Steam Input support as an avenue to reach a more diverse set of players. If you're the type of player who wants to delve into more games that support controllers, check out our Controller Friendly homepage for ideas.

Worldwide catalog

We've become accustomed to seeing a diverse representation of games and developers on each month's list, so it was no surprise to see that yet again in July, with games coming from nine different countries (check the list below for full country & developer details). No matter where players are plugged in, they are able to choose from games made all over the world. Developers have paid attention to that too, as most games now support a wide variety of localization options. July's Top Releases offered a huge amount of support in that regard, with games this month supporting an average of seven languages each. DEATH STRANDING takes the cake, with a whopping 20 supported languages, and 12 with full audio support.

New developer highlights

Finally, we'd like to highlight the 11 development teams who made this month's list with their first ever Steam release. Some of these developers have been making games for years on other teams or platforms, while some are making their first-ever game. Congrats and welcome to the following developers - we hope to see more amazing work from you in the future:  Catfood Studio, Cradle Games, Easy Day Studios Pty Ltd, Final Strike Games, KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS, Phobia Game Studio, Robot Squid, Spilt Milk Studios,
Thunkspace LLC, Veewo Games and 甘肃嘉元数字科技有限公司.

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July's Top Releases

Here's the list of July's top releases ordered by release date (we've organized this list on a sale page too):


F1® 2020
Codemasters (UK)


SWORD ART ONLINE Alicization Lycoris
AQURIA Co., Ltd. (Japan)


The Wind Road 紫塞秋风
甘肃嘉元数字科技有限公司 (China)


Rocket Arena
Final Strike Games (USA)


DEATH STRANDING
KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS (Japan)


雀魂麻將(MahjongSoul)
Catfood Studio (China)


Neon Abyss
Veewo Games (China)


STORY OF SEASONS: Friends of Mineral Town
Marvelous Inc. (Japan)


FAIRY TAIL
KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD. (Japan)


SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE
SUPERHOT Team (Poland)


STAR WARS™: The Old Republic™
BioWare (Canada)


5D Chess With Multiverse Time Travel
Conor Petersen & Thunkspace, LLC (USA)


CARRION
Phobia Game Studio (Poland)


Othercide
Lightbulb Crew (France)


Grounded
Obsidian Entertainment (USA)


Destroy All Humans!
Black Forest Games (Germany) & Pandemic Studios (USA)


Skater XL - The Ultimate Skateboarding Game
Easy Day Studios Pty Ltd (USA)


Blightbound
Ronimo Games (Netherlands)


Hellpoint
Cradle Games (Canada)


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July's Top Free Releases


Here are the Top 5 free-to-play titles from July, ranked by total unique player count:


STAR WARS™: The Old Republic™
BioWare (Canada)


Soda Dungeon 2
AN Productions & Poxpower (USA)


雀魂麻將(MahjongSoul)
Catfood Studio (China)


King of Crabs
Robot Squid & Spilt Milk Studios (UK)


Devolverland Expo
Flying Wild Hog (Poland)

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If you're curious about previous months, here are more Top Release lists:
Team Fortress 2 - Valve
An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

  • Added the Summer 2020 Cosmetic Case
    • Contains 22 new community-contributed items
    • Adds 4 new community-created Unusual effects
  • Fixed an issue where values computed from server bounded ConVars could be incorrect on the client and therefore possibly exploitable
  • Fixed Australium Medigun/Wrench items not dropping for the Mann vs. Machine rewards
  • Fixed the chat window not always being restored to the appropriate place
  • Fixed Competitive badges not displaying correctly
  • Increased the default caps_per_round for Mannpower mode
  • Updated the Watch Streams dialog to open the Twitch page
  • Updated cp_granary with a permanent Soldier statue
  • Updated/Added some tournament medals
  • Updated the localization files
Dota 2 - Valve
Aghanim's Trials
- For this week's Trial the ascension level will be Sorcerer, and the monsters from beyond dimensions are extra resistant to physical attacks, including bosses.

General
- Fixed a bug that could cause Kinetic Field's Formation Time to become negative.
- Fixed Static Storm's cooldown reduction upgrade applying as a flat value instead of a percentage reduction.
- Fixed some cases where ability values would not update after taking a shard.
- Fixed Rend lifestealing from reflected damage.
Risk of Rain 2 - Valve
Risk of Rain 2 is Now Available on Steam!

Escape a chaotic alien planet by fighting through hordes of frenzied monsters – with your friends, or on your own. Combine loot in surprising ways and master each character until you become the havoc you feared upon your first crash landing.
Dota 2 - Valve
General
- The next of Aghanim's Trials will be set to Grand Magus ascension level
- Fixed a bug where passives would sometimes not update their values from upgrades immediately

Ursa
- Earthshock bonus damage upgrade increased from 75 to 100
- Fixed Relentless stacks getting wiped by re-casting Overpower
- Relentless: stacks gained increased from 1 to 2
- Ursa Minor: Cubs' Fury Swipes damage increased from 20% to 25%
- Fixed Ursa being able to get permanent Concealed

Weaver
- Fixed Weaver being able to reduce Swarm's attack interval to near zero

Several Encounters have had their difficulty adjusted down
- The Malorkian Hammers
- An Unwinnable Standoff
- The Soothing Sounds of Sirens

Several Encounters have had their difficulty adjusted up
- The Beastly Babies
- Rizzrick the Razorsaw
- A Bad Trading Post
Dota 2 - Valve
General
- The next of Aghanim's Trials will take place on Sorcerer.
- The damage and health of enemies in Sorcerer and Grand Magus Act 1 / 2 now ramp up more slowly, better matching the curve in Apprentice and Magician (Act 3 unchanged).
- Many common and elite shards with low selection or efficacy rates have had their values increased or been removed (i.e. Witch Doctor 5% evasion, many mana cost shards)
- Fixed a bug where Viper and Magnus could get multiple ultimate ability upgrade options in the starting room
- Trap room treasure chests and the items they drop are removed if they are not picked up when the encounter completes
- Improved behavior when units like grumpy ogre seals bounce out of the level
- Boots of Travel: increased bonus move speed 32 -> 90
- Fixed several cases where enemies would not aggro on damage.
- Gary's armor now increases per ascension level.
- Time before creatures detect invisible players increased from 2.5 to 5 minutes
- Time before providing vision of remaining creatures to players increased from 4 to 5 minutes

Several Encounters have had their difficulty adjusted down
- Splitsville
- The Silent Killer
- Jungle Hijinx
- Blind Bombardiers and their Brethren
- A Strange Morphology
- Al, the Chemist
- The Last of the Corpulent Killers
- Toothy Toothums
- The Malorkian Hammers
- An Unwinnable Standoff
- A Mind-Tingling Offer
- Mister Cleaver
- A Bad Trading Post
- The Soothing Sound of Sirens

Several Encounters have had their difficulty adjusted up
- Hoppy Bats
- The Beastly Babies
- The Scarabs of Scuttletown
- Urn Your Keep

Ursa
- Fury Swipes are no longer affected by creature status resistance.
- Base max Fury Swipes stack count from 5 -> 6
- Added two new Earthshock Legendary Shards: Digging In and Relentless
- Digging In: Earthshock applies and has its damage increased by Fury Swipes.
- Relentless: Enemies that die under Earthshock's debuff give Ursa 1 stack of Overpower.
- Added two new Fury Swipes Legendary Shards: Rend and Ursa Minor
- Rend: Each stack of Fury Swipes grants Ursa 3% lifesteal/spell lifesteal.
- Ursa Minor: Fury Swipes gains an active component that summons 3 invulnerable, uncontrollable Ursa Cubs. The cubs deal 0 base damage, but randomly attack and apply Fury Swipes to nearby enemies, dealing 20% of the Fury Swipes bonus damage.
- Added a new Enrage Legendary Shard: Rampage
- Rampage: An Earthshock is triggered at Ursa's position every second while Enrage is active.
- Removed Blunt Their Claws Legendary Shard
- Removed Anger Legendary Shard
- Removed Tough Skin Legendary Shard

Snapfire
- Raisin Firesnaps now create the current level of Mortimer Kisses blob impact at the end position.
- When taking the "Lil' Shredder Uses Your Attack" talent, the fixed damage from Lil' Shredder is now applied to those attacks as bonus damage (such that taking bonus Lil' Shredder damage is no longer wasted)
- Stopping Power now additionally has the effect of Longer Barrels (deals the point blank damage to all targets) in addition to its knockback, and Longer Barrels has been removed.
- Autocannon shotgun interval shortened from 2.0 to 1.0
- Explosive Shells now also applies the Lil' Shredder debuff in the area instead of just the damage.
- Fixed Raisin Firesnaps not being targetable on enemy channeling targets.

Magnus
- Blast Off has been reworked. It now deals an attack on each Skewered enemy as it is passed through.
- Fixed Reverse Polarity and Reverse Reverse Polarity instantly killing Aghanim's Spell Shards.

Mars
- Added new Bulwark Legendary Scepter Shard: Retort
- Retort: During Active Bulwark, Mars has a 17% chance to counter attack with God's Rebuke if attacked from the front

Sniper
- Assassinate: cast point reduced from 2.0 to 1.5
- Added a common / elite shard to reduce Assassinate aim duration
- Hipshot now reduces aim duration by 50% rather than to a fixed duration
- Big Game Hunter: no longer provides bonus agility per Captain kill
- Big Game Hunter: provides +100 Assassinate damage per Captain kill, once per encounter
- Buckshot: fixed it failing to chain Assassinate projectiles to units that were beyond a certain range from the caster

Weaver
- Give Some, Take Some now additionally has the effect of Stay Back (knocking back the target of geminate attack hit), and Stay Back has been removed.
- Changed beetle attack rate reduction upgrade from -0.15 to -15%

Winter Wyvern
- Cool and Collected now also applies your current level of Arctic Burn debuff to the vacuumed targets.
- Arctic Burn: cooldown rescaled from 20/18/16/14 to 19/18/17/16
- Arctic Burn: duration reduced from 8 to 7
- Winter's Breath: number of additional attacks reduced from 4 to 3, damage to secondary targets reduced from 65% to 50%

Echo Slam Potion
- Initial damage increased 180 -> 300
- Echo damage increased 110 -> 130
- Cost reduced 750 -> 650

Ravage Potion
- Damage increased 600 -> 800

Explosive Barrel
- Now also applies 0.75 second stun

Map Changes:
- Nav fixes for The Long And Winding Path, The Hallway of Pain, The Cliffs of Sacrifice, Corridors of Chaos, No Time To Brood, Badland Bandits, The Bomb Squad, Battle Squawks, The King Returns and The Apex Mage.
- Added trees to the west entrance of Rizzrick the Razorsaw.
Steam News - AndrewL


With the action-packed Steam Summer Sale drawing to a close, it’s a good time to take a look back at some of the awesome games released in June. The month was filled with exciting releases, but these are the Top 20 games that found the most success with players in June. As a reminder, we measure monthly Top Releases by looking at revenue generated during the first two weeks after launch. We're also showcasing the Top 5 free-to-play games released in June, measured by total unique players.

When the Top Release lists come together each month, we’re always curious to see what themes end up being shared among the top games. One theme that seems to appear nearly every month is the consistently high volume of Top Releases that utilize Steam’s Early Access (EA) model of development. June featured an EA trend of its own, but in quite a different way than in previous months.

Electronic Arts (EA) stormed the charts this month, racking up eight of the Top 20 New Releases for June (Battlefield™ V, Command & Conquer™ Remastered Collection, Crysis® 3, Dragon Age™ Inquisition, Need for Speed™ Heat, The Sims™ 4, STAR WARS™ Battlefront™ II, and Titanfall® 2). EA’s developer list for these titles reads like of a who’s who of game studios, with DICE, Maxis, BioWare, Crytek and Respawn all making appearances on June’s Top 20. No one can be sure what games will end up on future lists, but with EA already announcing several upcoming titles, we wouldn’t be surprised to see them here again.

Along with EA’s huge showing in June, developer Quantic Dream also claimed two spots this month with their story-driven hits, Detroit: Become Human and Beyond: Two Souls. June also saw the Steam debuts of two incredibly popular franchises as fans all over the world rejoiced in the arrival of both SpongeBob SquarePants & Megami Tensei. Traditionally, you’d see a batch of big name releases like this during a holiday season. But the old notion of seasonality is becoming more and more out of date. No matter the weather outside or the day of the week - it’s always a good time to find your favorite Top Release on Steam.

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June's Top Releases

Here's the list of June's top releases ordered by release date (we've organized this list on a sale page too):


Sea of Thieves
Microsoft Game Studios (USA)


Crysis® 3
Crytek (Germany)


Dragon Age™ Inquisition
BioWare (Canada)


Need for Speed™ Heat
Ghost Games (Sweden)


Command & Conquer™ Remastered Collection
Petroglyph & Lemon Sky Studios (USA & Malaysia)


Satisfactory
Coffee Stain Studios (Sweden)


Battlefield™ V
DICE (Sweden)


Journey
thatgamecompany (USA)


STAR WARS™ Battlefront™ II
DICE (Sweden)


Persona 4 Golden
ATLUS (Japan)


Torchlight III
Echtra Inc. (USA)


Griftlands
Klei Entertainment (Canada)


Desperados III
Mimimi Games (Germany)


Hardspace: Shipbreaker
Blackbird Interactive (Canada)


Beyond: Two Souls
Quantic Dream (France)


Detroit: Become Human
Quantic Dream (France)


Outer Wilds
Mobius Digital (USA)


The Sims™ 4
Maxis (USA)


Titanfall® 2
Respawn Entertainment (USA)


SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated
Purple Lamp Studios (Austria)

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June's Top Free Releases


Here are the Top 5 free-to-play titles from June, organized by total unique player count:


Unfortunate Spaceman
Geoff 'Zag' Keene (New Zealand)


Cyber Hunter
NetEase Games (China)


Crafting Idle Clicker
Bling Bling Games GmbH (Germany)


Bomb Bots Arena
Tiny Roar (Netherlands)


ドラゴンクエストライバルズ
Square Enix (Japan)

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If you're curious about previous months, here are more Top Release lists:
Dota 2 - Valve
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed being able to use abilities and items in the Rolling In Riches Bonus Room.
- Flight is now disabled upon entering Trap rooms.
- Fixed Voodoo Restoration's Mana Cost upgrade increasing the mana cost.
- Fixed a case where players could die to Astral Step after The Shadow of Inai was defeated.
- Fixed players being able to die in the Aghanim victory sequence by dodging the invulnerability period with Eul's Scepter.
- The Tusk Walrus Wallop upgrade can no longer move Rizzrick.
- Fixed Witch Doctor's Death Ward being killable in some cases.
- Fixed Witch Doctor's Max Health Voodoo Restoration talent affecting Aghanim with Hocus Pocus.
- Fixed a case where Aghanim could be instantly killed by Winter's Curse.
- Fixed a server crash with Raisin Firesnaps.

Map Changes:
- Nav fixes for A Mind-Tingling Offer, Arrows Of The Moon, The Pugilist Pixies of Plague Wood, Manipulators of Time and Space, Mister Cleaver, The Soothing Sound of Sirens, They Speak in Spectral Tongues, Bogdugg the Bad-Bringer, The Fowl Feast, Al, the Chemist, My Rock Collection, Storegga The Ample, and Angry stuff with wings.
Soviet Jump Game - Valve
Soviet Jump Game is Now Available on Steam!

Snag powerups, collect coins, and battle against 49 other comrades in this 2D sidescrolling free-for-all. Together, we are one--but will you be the one who is held above all others?
Dota 2 - Valve
- Fixed a bug with Bloodrage that caused it to do more damage to yourself than intended
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