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Valve has updated how discovery works on Steam

Valve has updated how discovery works on Steam

Valve has released a new store discovery update for Steam.

In a blog post, the company claims that its new update would fix several problems. One of the most significant issues was that popular titles were being recommended more than lesser-known games.

"We were receiving lots of feedback that "Recommended for You," felt too biased towards only the most popular games and didn't feel very personalised," said Steam.

"We wanted to determine how to respond to this feedback, so we went in search of bugs and decided to run an experiment."

Bugs were found in areas such as the "similar by tags" part of the recommendation tool, placing top-rated games as the most common titles players see.

The company made some changes and did an experiment on five per cent of Steam users. It was found that users were 15 per cent more likely to click on a shown recommendation with the changes.

These changes have stopped the bias towards popular games, showing titles that are more diverse and better suited to individuals.

A second experiment was performed to see how many games are visited by the experimental group. There was an increase of 75 per cent, and 48 per cent for unique games visited and average visits per title respectively.

Since being released, more than 10,000 games have been added to wishlists through Steam's Interactive Recommender.

Next week Steam kicks off its open beta for its new store library. It will boast several new features and a visual overhaul. Steam designer Alden Kroll spoke to PCGameInsider.biz about Valve updating Steam for the current games industry.

Earlier this year the company let users see new experimental features with the new Stam Labs.


Staff Writer

Kayleigh is the Staff Writer for PocketGamer.biz. Besides PGbiz and PCGI she has written as a list writer for Game Rant, rambling about any and all things games related. You can also find her on Twitter talking utter nonsense.