Steam News - jennyj

Join us October 25 - November 1 as we don our costumes and celebrate things that go bump in the night during Steam Scream Fest! Featuring discounts and demos on current and upcoming games, as well as special Halloween-themed gameplay, come fuel your nightmares (or your candy bucket) with terrifying thrillers, haunting horrors, and festive Halloween romps. This event is for games and in-game events focused on all things Halloween: the supernatural, the scary, and the spooktacular.



Don't forget to check out the Points Shop where you'll find over 10 all-new thrilling Game Profiles from some of your favorite scary games. Perfect for decorating your Steam profile for the Halloween season.

Steam Scream Fest runs October 25, 10:00 AM PDT (GMT-7) to November 1, 10:00 AM PDT (GMT-7). Check out the official Steam Scream Fest page now.
Steam News - boyd
Library
  • Added a section to display a rollup of new DLC and other game content that has been released since you last visited a game's library page. Once visible, this section will automatically hide after a short period of time.
  • Rebuilt how featured game news is displayed on library game pages. It is now displayed as a featured post at the top of the activity feed to improve readability and reduce the required work for game devs. The entry is shown for a short period of time before returning to its chronological spot in the activity feed.
  • Updated the presentation of the new DLC added to your account section on library game pages.
  • Changed how major updates are displayed in the library activity section to make them easier to find.
Steam News - EmilyK

The newly updated Steam Mobile app is available now!

We've completely revamped the Steam Mobile app - with a new framework, new design, and new features. You’ll still be able to browse the store, get Steam Guard codes, and confirm trades - with additions like QR code scanning for PC sign in, smarter notifications, customizable tabs, and a new Library view with remote downloads.

Supported by work across the entire Steam platform to improve account security, including new sign in experiences on the web and in the Steam Client, the mobile app is the best way to keep your account secure with two-factor authentication.

Features of the app
  • Two-factor authentication to ensure you’re the only one with access to your account
  • QR code sign in - Scan a QR code to sign into Steam instead of entering a password or…
  • Sign in confirmation - Confirm your regular Steam sign ins with simple “approve” or “deny”
  • Authorized Devices - Manage access to the devices your account has signed in
  • Easy access to the Store, Community, News, etc from wherever you are
  • Your Library with access to your game content, discussions, guides, support, and more
  • Remote download of games and updates on your PC, managed from your phone
  • Customizable Steam notifications: wishlist, sales, comments, trades, discussions, friend requests, and more
  • Trade and Market confirmations – to ensure items don’t leave your account without your approval
  • An improved Store browsing experience for mobile screens
  • Support for using multiple Steam accounts in the app
  • Customizable tabs
Where do I get the app?
The app is available in the Apple App Store, the Google Play Store, and as a standalone APK. You can learn more about all 3 of Steam’s apps: Steam Mobile, Steam Link, and Steam Chat.

QR code sign in
The new mobile app includes QR code sign in, a new sign in method for Steam that allows you skip entering your user name and password. The process relies on the 2fa credentials stored in your phone app, securely identifying you through your mobile device to Steam.

When you sign in to Steam this way, the mobile app will show you a confirmation page with details about the sign in attempt, including a map and the approximate geolocation of the device you’re signing in to. You can use these details to verify that the attempted sign in is you and then approve or deny the attempt, all from the Steam Mobile app. This is the beauty of 2fa - if your password is exposed, you can still decline attempts to access your account.



Not interested in using your camera? Even if you prefer to continue using your account name and password to sign in, you'll be able to use the mobile app to confirm your sign in, without manually entering a Steam Guard code. But if you need to manually enter a code, for example, if your phone doesn't have service, you can still do that too.

Forget to sign out of Steam at a friend's house? From the Steam Mobile app you can now use the Authorized Devices page to review where your account is currently signed in, how recently the device was seen using your account, and even revoke access if necessary.

What about the chat app?
We’re also updating the Steam Chat app with various bug fixes, Android is updating today with iOS soon to follow. The Steam Chat app is the same feature rich chat you'll find in the Steam Client, with support for media, embeds, Giphy, Steam emoticons, stickers, videos, and more. Stay in touch with groups and friends alike when you're away from your PC.

What’s coming next?
  • Bringing QR sign in to Steam Deck
  • Adding new notification types
  • Bringing the Authorized Devices list to the Steam Client and browser

Thanks again to all our beta testers for providing feedback. We can't wait for you to try out the app and let us know what you think!
Steam News - joe
New Steam Sign In UI
  • Now enabled for all users
  • QR Code sign in now available
  • Read this announcement for more details


Sign In UI bug fixes
  • Fixed username and password fields flashing briefly at the end of a successful sign in
  • Fixed automated login with credentials provided on the command line
  • Fixed Steam Guard code input accepting and potentially submitting with invalid characters
  • Fixed confirmation-based mobile sign-ins not successfully approving login when client asked for Steam Guard code instead
  • Added explicit messaging for failures related to too many retries
Steam News - joe
This update was re-released at 5:10pm Pacific to address an issue that was preventing some users from signing in.

Sign In UI
  • Updated sign in UI look and feel

Games to Play Together
  • Allow friend search by nickname or persona name
  • Include free to play games that have been played by the friend in Games to Play Together filters
  • Fixed issue with “Find Games to Play with Friends” showing games that your friend is sharing with you

Library
  • Fixed text display cropping issue with library filter tags

Steam Cloud
  • Fixed showing “Cloud Sync Failure” dialog on game launch when in Offline mode

In-Game Overlay
  • Improve overlay responsiveness in some edge cases for users with large friends lists or large numbers of incoming friends requests.

Remote Play
  • Fixed rare cases of keyboard input arriving out of order
Steam News - jennyj


Check out Steam Next Fest

Steam Next Fest is back! The October Edition is officially upon us, with a full week celebrating upcoming games. Play What's Next from first-time and veteran developers alike; and wishlist your favorites to be notified when they officially launch on Steam!

Hundreds of Free Demos
Today through October 10th at 10am PDT (UTC-7), we're showcasing hundreds of demos for the newest upcoming games across every genre from teams all over the world! You'll have the opportunity to try these unreleased games for free throughout Next Fest—no expo halls, no queues.

Discover Demos, Get A Badge
New for this edition of Next Fest: a Steam badge that levels up as you explore games in the newly revamped Discovery Queue. If you're not yet familiar with the new Discovery Queue, you can learn more about it here.

Official Livestream Kickoff
Day 1 includes our own live show (starting at 11am PDT) to kick off a full week of developer livestreams and chats! Check out the schedule on the front page to find more to enjoy.

Explore and Discover
With so many amazing games to choose from, it can be hard to know where to start. We've got your back, with lots of easy ways to explore Next Fest!
  • Browse by category, or a game’s primary tags, to find demos in your favorite genre; you can even search by sub-genres or specific features.
  • Check out the Event Schedule for developer-hosted livestreams and chats to see who you might like to connect with.

Check out Steam Next Fest

#SteamNextFest
Steam News - andrewl624


Returning to our monthly series, we're excited to announce Steam's Top Releases for the month of August. As always, we look at every game released during the month, highlighting the Top 20 games and Top 5 DLC releases based on their first two weeks of revenue. We also highlight the top 5 free-to-play games, ranked by the number of unique players they acquired after launch.

The Top Releases of August 2022

New home
Last week we launched a completely overhauled Steam Charts overview page, which will now host these Monthly Top Release lists. The Charts page also includes a ton of other interesting information, including player stats, real-time top sellers, historical charts, and more. You can read all about it here.

Summer blockbusters
Summer is the perfect venue for a blockbuster, and August fit the bill with a number of headliners rising to the Top Release marquee. As one of the most beloved superheroes of the past 60 years, expectations were massive for the PC debut of Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered. Insomniac Games and Nixxes Software delivered in a big way, letting players take full advantage of modern hardware, all while raising the bar for what Steam players can expect from an experience built for the PC. On top of that, it's great on the Steam Deck! August also included the massively-multiplayer Steam debut of Guild Wars 2. Its arrival on Steam coincides with recent in-game festivities and player celebration of a 10 year journey with this award-winning MMO classic.

Funny business
Creating a Top Release is no laughing matter for developers, with plenty of hard work, careful planning, and creative spark going into each and every game that makes it to the top. While creating one of these is no joke, August's Top Releases brought plenty of laughs to Steam libraries. For Cult of the Lamb and Destroy All Humans! 2 - Reprobed, players are encouraged to push the boundaries of dark humor as they explore familiar archetypes with morbidly unique twists. For a more light-hearted sense of humor, players can check out PlateUp! and Two Point Campus, each with a generous helping of strategy and comic relief. Finally, we can't talk comedy without mentioning that Dead by Daylight now boasts a laugh-out-loud spinoff that needs no explanation - Hooked on You: A Dead by Daylight Dating Sim™.   

--

If you're curious about previous months, head over to the brand-new Steam Charts overview page.
Steam News - mikela
Note: This update was re-released on September 28 to update and fix localization entries.

Games to Play Together
  • You can now add Friends as a filter under Advanced Filtering in your Library. It will show games you have in common.
  • Right-click on any user in Chat or your Friends List to Find Games to Play Together and it will auto-populate your filter while also applying the Multiplayer tag.
  • Right-click a Group Chat header to do the same with smaller group chats or voice channels (8 members or less)

General
  • In-game purchases on Mac and Linux will now use the updated purchase approval dialog
  • Reduced network usage at startup
  • Fixed issue causing games which are currently updating to not change to playable when going into Offline Mode unless Steam is restarted
  • Fixed link to downloads page not appearing at client startup if no downloads are ongoing
  • Fixed input of characters using AltGr on Windows in the Steam Login dialog and Steam Chat and web browsers in the Steam Overlay
  • Fixed community broadcast pop-out and closing of the mini-player view
  • Fixed client update dialog sometimes failing to display update notes
  • Updated embedded Chromium build in Steam to 85.0.4183.121

Remote Play
  • Greatly improved capture performance in Vulkan games
  • Fixed Remote Play launch hanging when the remote game had a cloud sync pending
  • Fixed black screen when streaming to a Linux computer

Steam Input
  • Steam no longer ignores PS4 controllers when DS4Windows is running, allowing DS4Windows to remap them normally
  • Added support for the Hori Fighting Stick α
  • Added support for Kinvoca Joy-Cons controllers
  • Default the names of generic gamepads to the device name reported over USB
  • Fixed not being able to press the mic button on PS5 controllers
  • Fixed displaying the name of Nintendo Online NES controllers
  • Fix an issue where Switch controllers could show up w/ a duplicate device
  • Fixed issues w/ Alt-Tabbing via Guide Button Chords
  • Added experimental support for PS3 controllers on macOS
  • Bring various bug fixes from the Steam Deck beta branch to fix those while streaming from the Desktop client
  • FlickStick Upgrade (inherited from CS:GO)
    • New angle snapping options for initial Flick-Turns (None, 180, 90, 60, 45, Forward Deadzone Angle).
    • Tunable Forward Deadzone Angle.
    • Rapid consecutive Flick-Turns will be fully respected (the previous Flick-Turn was interrupted in the last version)
    • Flick-Turn Duration becomes a tunable smoothing factor (low pass filter), instead of a fixed duration. The time to complete a turn is relative to the size of the angle being turned.
    • Flick-Turn is smoothed based on how far the stick is thrown past the inner deadzone, for a less "surprising" Flick-Turn threshold.
    • Sensitivity Setting becomes "Pixels Per Revolution" (This setting was previously pixels per half revolution).
    • Sweep rotation sensitivity and smoothing can be tuned independent of Flick-Turn.
    • More gradual rotation when stick is partially-thrown
Steam Overlay
  • Fixed web browser crash when loading certain blank URL's

macOS
  • Fixed incorrect placement of "Restore Window" button when client window is maximized

Linux
  • Fix entering characters in Steam Overlay that use an AltGr key sequence
Steam News - Alden
Today we've launched a new section of Steam dedicated to ranking the most popular games on Steam. This new section includes real-time charts for top selling and most played games, as well as weekly top sellers and monthly top new releases.

Check out the new charts here: https://store.steampowered.com/charts/

This new section replaces the old 'stats' page on Steam and provides a better overview for what is hot on Steam right now. The new top-selling lists rank games based on total revenue, including all sources such as DLC and in-game transactions so we can all get a more complete picture of which games players are excited about getting into and continuing to play. This new method of calculating revenue is also being deployed across various top lists throughout the Steam store, including the Top Sellers tab on Steam's homepage, genre and tag pages.

Here is a closer look at what's new:


Charts Overview Page

The new Steam Charts overview page provides a quick summary of which games are selling well, being played the most, and how many users are online. Plus, links to quickly jump to the most recent weekly and monthly charts.

And you can continue to find links here to the Steam Hardware Survey, Download Stats, and Customer Support Stats.


Real-time Top Sellers

We've had real-time Top Sellers sections on various pages across Steam for well over a decade, even broken out into top lists for individual tags, genres, and themes. You can still find those by visiting any tag or genre page, or simply going to the search page on Steam and sorting by top sellers. Today's update builds on that history with a few notable improvements in the Steam Charts view:
  • Number of weeks on chart - We've added indication of how many weeks a game has been on the top sellers chart.
  • Weekly change in rank - We've added indication of how many positions a game has changed in rank, if any, compared with the previous week.
  • Region switcher - For a set of most popular countries on Steam, we generate country-specific top sellers lists as a default so the lists can pick up on regional differences in customer interests. By default, we'll show you charts for your own country if we have them, but you can always switch to the global view or to another country's view if you are curious.
  • Total revenue - This list charts how well games are selling right now, including all editions (standard, deluxe, etc) of the game as well as DLC and in-game transactions. If an individual DLC is selling well enough on it's own to make the chart, we'll show the DLC entry as well so you can see when exciting new game expansions are making a splash.
Check out the real-time top sellers chart: https://store.steampowered.com/charts/topselling/global


Real-time Most Played

The Most Played list charts the top 100 games based on the number of players in the game right now, along with an indication of the recent peak in player count for each of those top games. You can also switch to a view sorted by daily players which ranks the games based on the total number of unique players over the past 24 hours.

Check out the real-time most played chart: https://store.steampowered.com/charts/mostplayed


Weekly Top Sellers Charts

The new weekly charts show the top 100 best-selling games based on revenue earned starting and ending each week on Monday at 10am Pacific. These lists show how many weeks in a row each game has been on the weekly charts and any change in rank from the previous week.

You can easily view previous weeks' charts to see popular games you may have missed. In fact, if you keep going through previous weeks, you can step all the way back to 2005 when there was a grand total of three games available for sale on Steam. Or the week of March 27 when PUBG launched straight to the top of the charts.

What other historical moments in PC gaming can you find immortalized in these weekly charts?


Monthly Top New Releases
For over a year now, we've been compiling a list for each months' top new releases. These monthly charts continue within a new home alongside our other charts, making it easier to look back at previous months' lists.

Check July's Top New Releases: https://store.steampowered.com/charts/topnewreleases/top_july_2022


Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Why include Free to Play games on these charts?
A. Over time we've seen games utilize a wide variety of approaches to pricing. Traditionally our top sellers charts have only included revenue from premium game purchases, but that was obscuring the hugely popular free or inexpensive games in which players purchase season passes, huge expansions, or other forms of new content. This format also lets us combine multiple editions of the same game so as to avoid duplication on the charts.

Q. What if a game is not available on Steam anymore?
A. If a game has been retired and is no longer available for purchase, it will still be listed on historical weekly and monthly charts for when it was top selling game. The charts will also display items not available in your country, or filtered out by your preferences, but in a condensed form.
Steam News - Alden


Grab your weapons and prepare to fight! Bash Bash is a celebration (a “bash”, if you will) of games that fight (or “bash”, if you will). And you WILL!

But let's be honest, narrowing down "games that fight" is a pretty tall order for a broad category. Even when we started the conversations internally about which kinds of games best fit this event, we got into a few... fights (nothing exciting, mostly passive-aggressive email threads). You can see the outcome of said email thread by watching the video portion of this blog post above. But if seeing two idiots in costume attempting to explain a genre doesn't appeal to you, read on for the (slightly) more civilized written version.

Let's explore all the different ways people talk about games that fight by sharing a behind-the-scenes peek at how we looked at these games in the context of Bash Bash, while acknowledging this is one of those kinds of debates for which there is no wrong answer.

Bash Bash At-a-Glance

In Bash Bash, you'll find all kinds of games that feature combat fighting, typically involving melee-type weapons (think: swords, blades, etc.). Those aren't necessarily the ONLY weapons, as you'll often find games with other forms of fighting (like shooting) as a secondary part of the game.

Games you'll find in Bash Bash based on the above definition include:
  • Hack-and-slash
  • Spectacle fighters
  • Character action games
  • Musou

Let's start with hack-and-slash, which is a subgenre of beat-em-ups. Hack-and-slashers are action games that emphasize combat with melee weapons.

We're going to stop here for a sec because we sense a few of you may have read that sentence and thought, "a-HA! Beat-em-ups are Bash Bash worthy, so where are they?"

You aren't wrong, we promise! But beat-em-ups is an even wider genre that includes hand-to-hand combat and we wanted to focus this festival on being a bit more weapons-based. That's why you'll find hack-and-slash along with some hack-and-slash subgenres listed above.

Speaking of which, let's head back to the bulleted list: spectacle fighters. By these, we mean third-person games where the fighting favors a more stylistic, visually-impressive style over a realistic feel.

Character action games are also a subgenre of hack-and-slashers, with more of a focus on the story and journey of the character in the context of the fighting.

Finally, Musou games. Musou refers to games where you battle a lot of enemies. Like... a LOT, and from all angles, too. The history with the name lies in the games by Japanese developer Omega Force, which created many series of such games, typically with 'Warrior' somewhere in the title. Though that's the origin, Musou has since become a more expansive term to be its own subgenre of hack-and-slash.

Some of the features frequently found in games featured in Bash Bash include:
  • RPG elements
  • Third-person gameplay
  • Fast-paced combat
  • Tracked combat combos, or a visual representation of damage
  • Score/ranking system
  • Character moveset/weapons customization

Bottom line:
From now until September 26th at 10am PDT, you'll find discounts and demos on current and upcoming games as described above, and we hope you have as much fun exploring them as we did putting it together! However, if you disagree with our definition of games that Bash, definitely feel free to angrily tweet at us let us know, as we're always looking for fun and creative ways to feature all kinds of genres!

Check it out now: https://store.steampowered.com/category/hack_and_slash/

...