The digital gaming platform Steam is widely recognized for its vast library and social features, connecting millions of gamers worldwide. With an ever-growing community, the aspect of profile and library privacy has become increasingly relevant for many users. Addressing this need, Steam has introduced a new feature for participants of their client beta: the ability to designate individual games in your library as private.
The privacy feature rolled out by Steam is particularly advantageous for users who have games in their library that they prefer to keep away from the prying eyes of other users. This could serve various purposes. As a hypothetical example, consider a games journalist who needed to purchase games with peculiar names or themes for research. Now, this journalist—or any user in a similar situation—can hide these games to make sure they're not visible to friends or even family members, such as children.
The announcement from Steam underscored their long-standing commitment to providing multiple layers of privacy for users. Their profiles, complete game lists, and other details have privacy options, but sometimes, users want to hide specific titles. With this update, marked titles will vanish from all visible lists. What this means is that once a game is set to private, it would no longer show up in sections such as game ownership records, in-game status, playtime, or any activity feed related to that game. This update gives users the balance of sharing most of their gaming activities while keeping selected titles under wraps.
The mechanism to mark a game as private is relatively straightforward. Users can navigate to the game's page in their Steam library, click on Settings, then select the "Manage..." option. This is where users can change the game's privacy settings, an action reflected by the use of ellipses which seems to be a quirky design choice by Steam paralleling characters often seen in visual novels.
The beta update doesn't stop at privacy innovation; it also brings with it a slew of shopping cart features. A notable inclusion is the ability to set games as private even before completing the purchase, which means users can preemptively keep their new acquisitions hidden if desired. Adding to user convenience, the shopping cart now syncs across devices, so users can manage their purchases regardless of which device they're on. Another useful feature is "inline gifting," which simplifies the process of buying gifts for friends. Multiple gifts can now be purchased in a single, streamlined transaction.
For many, the timing of these updates is particularly advantageous, coinciding with seasonal sales such as the Steam winter sale when user activity and purchasing dramatically increase. The updates invite new ways for users to manage their digital footprint and gift purchases just as they are likely to be more active on the platform.
Those interested in utilizing these new features need to opt into the Steam beta. This can be achieved by visiting the settings section of the Steam interface and finding the "Client Beta Participation" area. Here, a dropdown menu allows users to select "Steam Beta Update," thus activating the beta program and its features within their Steam client.
The introduction of these features reflects Steam's sensitivity to its users' varied needs for privacy. It offers a space where users can curate their gaming experiences and how they're displayed to others, with greater control than ever before. Whether it's for personal reasons, professional discretion, or simply a desire for a more private gaming experience, Steam provides tools that reaffirm its stance on user privacy. As players prepare to dive into new games, particularly during big sales events, they can now do so with the assurance that they have the ability to keep their gaming habits as public or private as they see fit.
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