Steam’s front-page tab for upcoming releases has changed to reflect user interests.

Until yesterday, the ‘Upcoming Games’ tab on the store’s front page would flatly list every upcoming title as they arrived. The system was prone to flooding whenever a publisher released dozens of old titles, or DLC releases for games a customer didn’t own.

“It was literally just a chronological list of upcoming titles,” said Valve of the old system, in a Steam blog post.

“It didn't do anything to build a list of games suited to anyone's interests and just wasn't doing its job. Hundreds of new games are coming to Steam every month, but customers weren't using this list to find new things to play. It was a feature that needed work.”

“Therefore, as of today the Upcoming tab will be a smarter, more tailored list called Popular Upcoming. This list will take into account the pre-release interest in a game -- that is to say, data we gather through wishlists, pre-purchase, and a developer's or publisher's past titles.”

The new Popular Upcoming tab is another attempt by the Steam to fix discoverability issues with the store. A purely chronological dump of every upcoming game on Steam is still available, but it’s now tucked at the bottom of the tab.

This change may help in Steam’s ongoing mission to combat fake games, keeping them off the front page. Besides, as long as the platform expresses a complete unwillingness to regulate what gets on Steam, there’s an increasing need to make sure the right games reach the right customers.

SteamSpy's Sergey Galyonkin recently told PCGamesInsider.biz that he is a supporter of Valve's 'anything goes' strategy, but criticised Steam for not giving users enough control over what the saw. This new system is certainly a step in the right direction with regards to this.