Valve Rolls out New Steam Labs Service
Steam recently faced criticism following its annual Summer Sale when it failed to properly recommend new games to individual players. It seems as a result of this, Valve is rolling out a brand new service to help correct this and it’s called Steam Labs.
Steam Labs is set to use AI tracking tools to scan its users playtime and which types of games are currently in their library in order to recommend what to buy. This test service has three active parts or experiments: micro trailers, an interactive recommender, and an automatic show. Here’s the official description of the service from Steam’s website, “Every year, we create dozens of experiments around discoverability, video, machine learning, and more. You know who we thought might enjoy seeing them? Everyone.”
So what do each of its moving parts actually do? Micro trailers present you with six second trailers that are designed to quickly inform players on what each game is about. If the trailer piques your interest, you can click on it to visit its page within the store. This feature is the “fancier version of the Twitter bot of the same name.” The automated show is a daily 30 minute video, or less, where Steam shows off a variety of game clips within this time. Think of it as a bit of a mash up for the greatest hits currently on the website. Lastly, there’s the interactive recommender. This uses playtime history and your current library to make recommendations on what you might be interested in playing next. Further to this, you can adjust the recommendations by choosing games that are either niche or popular and you can restrict games by tags or release date.
What do you think about Steam Labs? Is this the change you’ve been waiting for? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and don’t forget to keep it locked for updates!