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After years of settling for serviceable, Valve is finally updating Steam’s interface to something a little spiffier. As our friends at PC Gamer (opens in new tab) reported, the Steam Library is getting a major overhaul on September 17 – which you’ll need to opt into the Steam beta client to access – that introduces a smarter layout and intuitive-looking filters to display your games in a way that’s more exciting and navigable than… an alphabetical list.
The headlining feature is the addition of Collections which let you organize games according to tags you set yourself. If you already use Categories to sort your games – that is to say, you’re one of the 11 people who knew the feature existed – they’ll automatically become Collections in the new system. Otherwise, you can create collections according to their genre, features, players, and other factors – and once you set up collections, Steam will automatically add whatever games you buy to them.
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Outside of collections, you can also create a Shelf for your library’s home page that displays your favorite games, whatever you’re playing right now, or just whatever tickles your fancy. You can also pin Collections to your home page to keep them fresh in your mind. The example Valve shared shows Collections like “Fresh indies ready to roll,” “Couch co-op,” and “Night games,” whatever those are.
Meanwhile, the pages for individual games have been tweaked to make updates and achievements more prominent, and to better display your friends’ activity. Separately, Valve says it’s planning some Steam Labs experiments which may one day change the way the storefront displays and organizes games, provided they can make it through the arcane labyrinth that is Valve’s research and development department.
Earlier this year, Valve quietly announced a new VR headset (opens in new tab) called the Valve Index.
