Another of Valve's experiments has graduated from Steam Labs into the main version of the PC platform.

In a post on the Steam website, the firm revealed that there are now a load of new ways to browse the service, including the New & Noteworthy menu which showcases fresh and popular releases on Steam. There's also the new Categories, which break down the massive number of games available on the PC platform into various genres, themes and player modes to make it easier for players to find something they like. Clicking through on these takes users to hubs that recommend games to players.

"These player motivations can be organised and expressed using Steam tags and metadata. Categories grouped under the Genres and Themes entry points are defined by tags, whereas categories grouped under Player Modes are defined by additional metadata provided by the developer," Valve wrote.

"We arrived at these three top-level categories through a mix of formal research, intuition, and beta feedback. There’s also strong precedent for this scheme on Steam itself in the form of Steam Curators. We noticed many curators are building lists of specific types of games, almost all of which fall under one of the above three patterns: Gameplay and genre-based lists like City Builders, theme-based lists like Games with Dogs, or player mode-based lists like Games to Play with Your Significant Other."

These changes came to Steam Labs in December 2020 and are the latest improvements to move from Valve's experimental hub to the main version of Steam. Steam Labs launched in July 2019.