Steam has released their ninth Steam Labs Experiment with the addition of the News Hub! The new version of the news feed is meant to explore ways to make a more personalized feed available for users of the client.
“Whether you’re at work, on the bus, or playing at home, you can now browse a personalized hub to easily find the updates, announcements, and events from the games you play and games you are interested in,” Valve explains in their announcement. “Plus, learn about upcoming events with options to get email or mobile reminders so you can jump right in when the event is live.”
One of the first features mentioned is the ability to highlight live events. This makes it so that users can set a reminder for upcoming events like a developer’s stream or an in-game bonus event. You can also use it to set reminders of upcoming releases like DLC or additional content for your favorite games.
There also will be an organization of recent events and news based on how recent they are. By organizing it chronologically, it seems Valve wants to promote a steadier, more relevant stream of news. Upcoming events can also be seen in this feed!
You’ll also be able to find upcoming events and announcements for items of your choosing. Valve outlines that you can select from your library, wishlist, following list, Steam’s recommendations, or the Steam/Steamworks Blogs to see these.
With all of the features described it certainly seems to be incredibly user-friendly. Valve states that it’s also mobile-friendly, with the event hub purposely designed to be easy-to-use for your mobile devices. They hope that this will help with bringing your gaming hobby on the go as well, letting you find the news on your daily commute or work break.
This is far from the finished version of the service, too. Valve discusses the upcoming features they intend to add in during the coming weeks, referring to additional news sources, overview pages, and even more customizable options.
If you’ve used the Steam News Feed recently, it isn’t fantastic. It’s mostly just articles from Steam-affiliated gaming news outlets that discuss a handful of topics and games that may or may not be relevant to you. With the upcoming customization of the News Hub, users will be able to completely fine-tune their news feed until it works exactly how they want it to. All in all, it’s a great way to keep users informed without bogging them down with useless information.
