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Valve Details Upcoming Steam Curator Update
Valve announced today it will be updating Steam’s Curator system with some major improvements later this fall.
The Curator system works by allowing people to select specific Curator accounts that they want to follow. These Curators' recommendations and reviews will then show up on on the follower's home page and activity log, narrowing down the sea of titles that they may be interested in. Part of the update later this fall will have your Curators' recommendations show up on other parts of the Steam Store as well.
Curators will also soon be able to embed videos in their reviews, create lists of reviews they’ve written (i.e. “Good Halloween Games” or “Top 10 RPGs”), have greater customization of their home page, and have access to more graphs showing how their reviews have impacted their followers' shopping decisions.
Valve is also hoping to make it easier for developers and publishers to get in contact with the right Curators with the new Curator Connect program. This lets developers select certain parameters to narrow down Curators, then select who to send a copy of their game to based on a snapshot of each Curator. If a Curator accepts, the game will be automatically added to their library.
Valve is starting a closed beta of this update today, which it’s hoping to run for a few weeks before opening it up to the public. The company also says it’s working on changes to Steam’s algorithmic recommendations, so people who don’t use the Curator system will also receive better suggestions.
[Source: Steamcommunity.com]
Our Take
The Curator system is a helpful way to get recommendations from people you know. Expanding the ways Curators can review content is good for them and the shoppers. Making it easier for developers to find the right Curators for their games will hopefully make their lives easier as well.
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