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Valve was on mitt at the Game Developers Briefing (GDC) in San Francisco this week to denote something large. No, it wasn't Half-Life three (it's never Half-Life 3). Valve is rolling out a long overdue redesign of the Steam library page. It's much more than visually appealing with more sorting options and tools for developers to engage with players. Now yous'll really be able to appreciate all those games y'all bought on sale and never got around to playing.

The redesign volition come up with a homepage that shows games as large thumbnails — it looks a bit like the Steam Big Pic UI. Games you've played recently will be featured at the top with buttons to re-launch them. Information technology tin can too surface games you might not take played lately or games that recently got major patches. The library will also provide easy access to DLC, so y'all tin can come across what you lot already own and add new packs more than easily.

The current Steam library is light on sorting options — all you can do is switch between alphabetical and recently played. Afterwards the new version rolls out, you'll exist able to sort using Steam'southward tag system. So, y'all tin filter by games that include open-earth or multiplayer elements. When you find the game yous want, Steam will feature much more information on the library page. You'll exist able to check on updates, events, and information from your friends who play the game. Information technology should save yous from jumping into the store or community pages as often.

Developers will get metrics on how often players collaborate with the issue notifications.

Developers on Steam will have the choice to announce special events and game updates inside the library. You can set reminders for such events, but players tin disable these pings if they want. That all ties into a new Events home folio associated with the library. The Events feed will listing things similar tournaments and live streams from all over Steam. You can also cull to restrict it to only show events from games that are in your library. Valve says developers volition get tools that measure engagement with these notification features.

Steam is testing the revamped library in a closed beta correct now, but there's no specific timeline for release. The current programme is to roll information technology out to everyone in a few months. So, much sooner than Half-Life 3.

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