New Steam Games RSS feed
© 2018 Valve Corporation. All rights reserved. All trademarks are property of their respective owners in the US and other countries.
View mobile website
It’s been a few months since we talked about how we want to approach shipping games with controversial content. In that blog post we talked about some of the tools we felt we needed to build and we thought it would be good to give you an update on where we are. We’ve done a number of things since that post, some which may seem unrelated, but if we are going to maintain an open view of what gets onto the Store, then you’ll need good tools to find the games you want, as well as avoid the things you don’t.
The first set of our changes focused on improving how you can find new games. We’ve added Developer & Publisher homepages so you can easily get from a game you love to others made by the same creators, or follow them if you want to be notified whenever they say or make something. We significantly reworked how our Upcoming Games Lists functioned, so they’re much better at showing you upcoming games that you might be interested in, or upcoming extra content for a game you’ve been playing a bunch.
A second set of changes was focused on improving how you can ignore things you’re not interested in. In the past you’ve been able to ignore individual games or product types (like VR, or Early Access) you didn’t want to see again. But now we’ve added ways for you to also easily ignore individual developers, publishers, and curators.
We’ve also improved the game tag filters on your account preferences. Previously, it was a list of 3 game tags that you wanted to see less of. We’ve now increased the number of tags you can list to 10, and made them into a harder filter – in short, the Store now assumes you want to ignore all the games that feature any of those tags in their most popular tags, instead of just using them as suggestions to our recommendation engine.
We did our best to ensure you can safely ignore swaths of games in the store, but still find them if you look directly via the search tool. If the game that we think you’re searching for is hidden due to your mature content settings, we identify that and let you know in a safe way. For example, if you have your preferences set to hide mature games with violence, but you search for The Witcher 3, you’ll see this:
If there are games that your search should contain that you’re ignoring for other reasons (due to its developer, or game tags, for instance), we’ll still include it in the list, but we’ll blur it out and when you hover over it you can see why it is darkened. For example, if you’ve chosen to ignore games by Valve, and then search for Left 4 Dead, you’ll see this:
A third set of changes focused on allowing you to have better control over the kinds of mature content you see. So far, the Store has allowed you to filter out games that feature Frequent Violence/Gore or Nudity/Sexual Content. After looking at the mature content in submissions we’re receiving, and at some games that are already in the Store, we’ve added two more options. The first is a general Mature Content filter. We often see developers who tell us their game contains mature content, but not sex or violence, and you can now filter those games out if you wish. The second is an Adults Only filter, which allows you to filter out games that feature explicit sexual content.
We’re also now requiring developers of games with violent or sexual content to describe the content of their game, and we’re using that information to help you decide whether a game is something you’re comfortable with. We think the context of how content is presented is important and giving a developer a place to describe and explain what’s in their game gives you even more information when browsing and considering a purchase. When you’re looking at the store page of a game with mature content, we’ll display that developer-written description to you. We’re also displaying it on the interstitial page we show you if you ever follow a direct link from outside steam to a game that should be filtered for you:
Finally, we’ve continued our efforts in removing bad actors from the Store. Last year we made changes to Trading Cards to address the ways a small set of developers were producing ‘games’ that generated revenue without anyone actually buying and playing them. Recently we made more changes to address other ways these bad actors were continuing to do it. We’ve also permanently banned several developers of games that we felt fit the “straight up trolling” description of games we’re not going to allow onto the Store. There’s actually a surprisingly small number of individuals behind almost all of these games, and their bans have been a straightforward series of decisions, thus far. You can read more about the shorthand of “straight up trolling,” and the process of making those decisions in the Q&A below.
With these sets of changes, we hope you have a better sense of how we’re approaching building a store that works for all developers and players. There’s still plenty of work to do. In our previous post we identified a range of things, from parental controls to tools for developers to manage their communities. In addition, some of the changes described in this post will require more options when we see new kinds of content in game submissions. Going forward, we aim to continue this strategy of shipping features as they’re finished, and posting periodic updates as to the nuts and bolts and the thinking behind their development.
Q&A
Q: What about games that are already in the store that include mature content?
A: Every developer will be encouraged to update their game with the customer-facing descriptions outlined above but in most cases Valve moderators will going back through the catalog and making sure games are complying with the new requirements.
Q: What do you mean, in practice, when you say you won’t ship games that are “outright trolling?” That seems vague.
A: It is vague and we’ll tell you why. You’re a denizen of the internet so you know that trolls come in all forms. On Steam, some are simply trying to rile people up with something we call “a game shaped object” (ie: a crudely made piece of software that technically and just barely passes our bar as a functioning video game but isn’t what 99.9% of folks would say is “good”). Some trolls are trying to scam folks out of their Steam inventory items, others are looking for a way to generate a small amount of money off Steam through a series of schemes that revolve around how we let developers use Steam keys. Others are just trying to incite and sow discord. Trolls are figuring out new ways to be loathsome as we write this. But the thing these folks have in common is that they aren’t actually interested in good faith efforts to make and sell games to you or anyone. When a developer’s motives aren’t that, they’re probably a troll.
Our review of something that may be “a troll game” is a deep assessment that actually begins with the developer. We investigate who this developer is, what they’ve done in the past, their behavior on Steam as a developer, as a customer, their banking information, developers they associate with, and more. All of this is done to answer the question “who are we partnering with and why do they want to sell this game?” We get as much context around the creation and creator of the game and then make an assessment. A trend we’re seeing is that we often ban these people from Steam altogether instead of cherry-picking through their individual game submissions. In the words of someone here in the office: “it really does seem like bad games are made by bad people.”
This doesn’t mean there aren’t some crude or lower quality games on Steam, but it does mean we believe the developers behind them aren’t out to do anything more than sell a game they hope some folks will want to play.
Q: Sometimes I see blurred out games on my Store front page. Why is that?
A: There are a number of sections on the front page that we fill with games, and to ensure the servers behind it don’t melt down as everyone tries to use it, we do a lot of data caching. This works great for data sets that we can easily pre-compute – so if there’s a game you shouldn’t see due to your mature content filters, you’ll never see it on the front page. But if you’ve chosen to do some more personal filtering of particular developers, or specific games, we can’t do that pre-computation as easily. As a result, it’s possible you’ll see a blurred out game on the front page because your personal filters should cause it to be hidden. In practice, though, this will only happen if you’ve filtered out so many games that it can’t find enough to fill a section of the front page, and again, like the search results, we’ll blur that game out and tell you why.
Q: Why do you KEEP asking my damn age throughout the store?
A: We’re with you on this. Unfortunately, many rating agencies have rules that stipulate that we cannot save your age for longer than a single browsing session. It’s frustrating, but know we’re filling out those age gates too.
7.19b:
==
* Buyback respawn time penalty changed from +25% of remaining time to +25s always
* Level 2 XP requirement changed from 200 to 230 (in a scenario where Team A gets 2 melee denies per wave, and team B gets 1 melee deny per wave: Team A wave requirement for level 2 increases from 2 waves to 3 waves. Team B wave requirement remains at 3 waves. Total XP needed for other levels unchanged. )
* Glyph is now on cooldown until the 3 minute timer in-game
* Stout Shield: Damage block for melee heroes increased from 18 to 20
* Ring of Aquila: Bonus damage reduced from 10 to 7
* Mekansm: Heal increased from 250 to 275
* Guardian Greaves: Heal increased from 250 to 275
* Urn of Shadows: Heal rate reduced from 35 to 30
* Spirit Vessel: Heal rate reduced from 35 to 30
* Spirit Vessel: Movement speed bonus reduced from 30 to 20
* Scythe of Vyse: Manacost increased from 100 to 250
* Phase Boots: Speed bonus on ranged heroes reduced from 16% to 13%
* Phase Boots: Instant turn rate is now a melee only feature
* Alchemist: Greevil’s Greed bounty rune multiplier rescaled from 3.5x to 2/2.5/3/3.5x
* Bloodseeker: Bloodrage heal rate reduced from 19/21/23/25% to 16/19/22/25%
* Broodmother: Base agility reduced by 3
* Chen: Penitence duration reduced from 8 to 5/6/7/8
* Clinkz: Base strength reduced by 2
* Crystal Maiden: Crystal Nova manacost increased from 130/140/150/160 to 130/145/160/175
* Dark Willow: Shadow Realm damage reduced from 120/200/280/360 to 90/180/270/360
* Dark Willow: Cursed Crown cast point increased from 0.1 to 0.2
* Drow Ranger: Base agility reduced from 26 to 19 (base damage unchanged)
* Drow Ranger: Agility gain increased from 1.9 to 2.2
* Drow Ranger: Base attack animation time improved from 0.7 to 0.65
* Enchantress: Base movement speed reduced by 15
* Gyrocopter: Base agility reduced by 5 (base damage and armor unchanged)
* Huskar: Base damage reduced from 42-51 to 40-45
* Huskar: Level 10 Talent increased from +175 Health to +225
* Io: Spirits cooldown from 20/18/16/14 to 26/22/18/14
* Io: Level 10 Talent reduced from +25% XP to +20%
* Mirana: Level 15 Talent reduced from +100 Leap Attack Speed to +80
* Nature’s Prophet: Base damage reduced by 3
* Necrophos: Agility rescaled from 15 + 1.2 to 12 + 1.3
* Necrophos: Base movement speed reduced by 5
* Phantom Lancer: Level 25 Talent reduced from -7s Doppelganger CD to -6s
* Silencer: Arcane Curse manacost increased from 75/95/115/135 to 105/115/125/135
* Spectre: Spectral Dagger linger duration reduced from 2 to 1
* Spectre: Dispersion max reflection range reduced from 1000 to 700
* Spectre: Desolate single hero range check increased from 325 to 375
* Tiny: Tree Grab manacost increased from 20/30/40/50 to 50
* Tiny: Avalanche cooldown increased from 20/19/18/17 to 23/21/19/17
* Ursa: Overpower manacost increased from 45/55/65/75 to 75
* Vengeful Spirit: Wave of Terror cooldown increased from 10 to 16/14/12/10
* Weaver: The Swarm manacost increased from 70/80/90/100 to 110
* Wraith King: Wraithfire Blast cooldown increased from 11/10/9/8 to 14/12/10/8
Grimstroke
– Phantom’s Embrace: Fixed the phantom latching to invulnerable targets (e.g. Cycloned units and Storm Spirit in Ball Lightning).
– Ink Swell: Fixed caster needing to be alive for the explosion damage and stun to apply
– Soulbind: Fixed its interaction with Witch Doctor’s Cask, Bounty Hunter’s Shuriken Toss, and Legion Commander’s Duel.
7.19b:
==
* Buyback respawn time penalty changed from +25% of remaining time to +25s always
* Level 2 XP requirement changed from 200 to 230 (in a scenario where Team A gets 2 melee denies per wave, and team B gets 1 melee deny per wave: Team A wave requirement for level 2 increases from 2 waves to 3 waves. Team B wave requirement remains at 3 waves. Total XP needed for other levels unchanged. )
* Glyph is now on cooldown until the 3 minute timer in-game
* Stout Shield: Damage block for melee heroes increased from 18 to 20
* Ring of Aquila: Bonus damage reduced from 10 to 7
* Mekansm: Heal increased from 250 to 275
* Guardian Greaves: Heal increased from 250 to 275
* Urn of Shadows: Heal rate reduced from 35 to 30
* Spirit Vessel: Heal rate reduced from 35 to 30
* Spirit Vessel: Movement speed bonus reduced from 30 to 20
* Scythe of Vyse: Manacost increased from 100 to 250
* Phase Boots: Speed bonus on ranged heroes reduced from 16% to 13%
* Phase Boots: Instant turn ra te is now a melee only feature
* Alchemist: Greevil’s Greed bounty rune multiplier rescaled from 3.5x to 2/2.5/3/3.5x
* Bloodseeker: Bloodrage heal rate reduced from 19/21/23/25% to 16/19/22/25%
* Broodmother: Base agility reduced by 3
* Chen: Penitence duration reduced from 8 to 5/6/7/8
* Clinkz: Base strength reduced by 2
* Crystal Maiden: Crystal Nova manacost increased from 130/140/150/160 to 130/145/160/175
* Dark Willow: Shadow Realm damage reduced from 120/200/280/360 to 90/180/270/360
* Dark Willow: Cursed Crown cast point increased from 0.1 to 0.2
* Drow Ranger: Base agility reduced from 26 to 19 (base damage unchanged)
* Drow Ranger: Agility gain increased from 1.9 to 2.2
* Drow Ranger: Base attack animation time improved from 0.7 to 0.65
* Enchantress: Base movement speed reduced by 15
* Gyrocopter: Base agility reduced by 5 (base damage and armor unchanged)
* Huskar: Base damage reduced from 42-51 to 40-45
* Huskar: Level 10 Talent increased from +175 Health to +225
* Io: Spirits cooldown from 20/18/16/14 to 26/22/18/14
* Io: Level 10 Talent reduced from +25% XP to +20%
* Mirana: Level 15 Talent reduced from +100 Leap Attack Speed to +80
* Nature’s Prophet: Base damage reduced by 3
* Necrophos: Agility rescaled from 15 + 1.2 to 12 + 1.3
* Necrophos: Base movement speed reduced by 5
* Phantom Lancer: Level 25 Talent reduced from -7s Doppelganger CD to -6s
* Silencer: Arcane Curse manacost increased from 75/95/115/135 to 105/115/125/135
* Spectre: Spectral Dagger linger duration reduced from 2 to 1
* Spectre: Dispersion max reflection range reduced from 1000 to 700
* Spectre: Desolate single hero range check increased from 325 to 375
* Tiny: Tree Grab manacost increased from 20/30/40/50 to 50
* Tiny: Avalanche cooldown increased from 20/19/18/17 to 23/21/19/17
* Ursa: Overpower manacost increased from 45/55/65/75 to 75
* Vengeful Spirit: Wave of Terror cooldown increased from 10 to 16/14/12/10
* Weaver: The Swarm manacost increased from 70/80/90/100 to 110
* Wraith King: Wraithfire Blast cooldown increased from 11/10/9/8 to 14/12/10/8
7.19b:
==
* Buyback respawn time penalty changed from +25% of remaining time to +25s always
* Level 2 XP requirement changed from 200 to 230 (in a scenario where Team A gets 2 melee denies per wave, and team B gets 1 melee deny per wave: Team A wave requirement for level 2 increases from 2 waves to 3 waves. Team B wave requirement remains at 3 waves. Total XP needed for other levels unchanged. )
* Glyph is now on cooldown until the 3 minute timer in-game
* Stout Shield: Damage block for melee heroes increased from 18 to 20
* Ring of Aquila: Bonus damage reduced from 10 to 7
* Mekansm: Heal increased from 250 to 275
* Guardian Greaves: Heal increased from 250 to 275
* Urn of Shadows: Heal rate reduced from 35 to 30
* Spirit Vessel: Heal rate reduced from 35 to 30
* Spirit Vessel: Movement speed bonus reduced from 30 to 20
* Scythe of Vyse: Manacost increased from 100 to 250
* Phase Boots: Speed bonus on ranged heroes reduced from 16% to 13%
* Phase Boots: Instant turn ra te is now a melee only feature
* Alchemist: Greevil’s Greed bounty rune multiplier rescaled from 3.5x to 2/2.5/3/3.5x
* Bloodseeker: Bloodrage heal rate reduced from 19/21/23/25% to 16/19/22/25%
* Broodmother: Base agility reduced by 3
* Chen: Penitence duration reduced from 8 to 5/6/7/8
* Clinkz: Base strength reduced by 2
* Crystal Maiden: Crystal Nova manacost increased from 130/140/150/160 to 130/145/160/175
* Dark Willow: Shadow Realm damage reduced from 120/200/280/360 to 90/180/270/360
* Dark Willow: Cursed Crown cast point increased from 0.1 to 0.2
* Drow Ranger: Base agility reduced from 26 to 19 (base damage unchanged)
* Drow Ranger: Agility gain increased from 1.9 to 2.2
* Drow Ranger: Base attack animation time improved from 0.7 to 0.65
* Enchantress: Base movement speed reduced by 15
* Gyrocopter: Base agility reduced by 5 (base damage and armor unchanged)
* Huskar: Base damage reduced from 42-51 to 40-45
* Huskar: Level 10 Talent increased from +175 Health to +225
* Io: Spirits cooldown from 20/18/16/14 to 26/22/18/14
* Io: Level 10 Talent reduced from +25% XP to +20%
* Mirana: Level 15 Talent reduced from +100 Leap Attack Speed to +80
* Nature’s Prophet: Base damage reduced by 3
* Necrophos: Agility rescaled from 15 + 1.2 to 12 + 1.3
* Necrophos: Base movement speed reduced by 5
* Phantom Lancer: Level 25 Talent reduced from -7s Doppelganger CD to -6s
* Silencer: Arcane Curse manacost increased from 75/95/115/135 to 105/115/125/135
* Spectre: Spectral Dagger linger duration reduced from 2 to 1
* Spectre: Dispersion max reflection range reduced from 1000 to 700
* Spectre: Desolate single hero range check increased from 325 to 375
* Tiny: Tree Grab manacost increased from 20/30/40/50 to 50
* Tiny: Avalanche cooldown increased from 20/19/18/17 to 23/21/19/17
* Ursa: Overpower manacost increased from 45/55/65/75 to 75
* Vengeful Spirit: Wave of Terror cooldown increased from 10 to 16/14/12/10
* Weaver: The Swarm manacost increased from 70/80/90/100 to 110
* Wraith King: Wraithfire Blast cooldown increased from 11/10/9/8 to 14/12/10/8
Play Warhammer: Vermintide 2 for FREE starting now through Sunday at 1PM Pacific Time. You can also pickup Warhammer: Vermintide 2 at 50% off the regular price!*
If you already have Steam installed, click here to install or play Warhammer: Vermintide 2. If you don’t have Steam, you can download it here.
*Offer ends Monday at 10AM Pacific Time
© 2018 Valve Corporation. All rights reserved. All trademarks are property of their respective owners in the US and other countries.
View mobile website
Grimstroke
– Stroke of Fate: reduced movement slow duration 2->1.5
– Stroke of Fate: movement slow can now be dispelled
– Stroke of Fate: reduced projectile vision radius (240->160)
– Stroke of Fate: reduced projectile’s endpoint vision radius (300->160) and duration (3.34->2)
– Stroke of Fate: fixed +600 range talent incorrectly updating the range preview
– Phantom’s Embrace: reduced phantom unit’s vision range 400->200
– Phantom’s Embrace: changed latch duration 4.0/4.5/5.0/5.5 -> 4.0/4.0/5.0/5.0
– Phantom’s Embrace: if the target dies, the Phantom now flies back to caster to refresh the cooldown
– Phantom’s Embrace: fixed a bug with +2 hits required talent only giving +1.3 hits (4 non-hero hits instead of 6)
– Ink Swell: reduced bonus movespeed 28/32/36/40->18/22/26/30
– Ink Swell: damage and stun amounts now range from 0 to max, instead of from a base value to max
– Ink Swell: ink tendril particle doesn’t display if the affected enemy unit is invisible
– Soulbind: no longer sees through invisibility on leashed targets
– Reduced model scale 0.81->0.76
– Fixed some tooltip values that didn’t updated with talent values
– Added some tooltip notes
Two Point Hospital is Now Available on Steam and is 10% off!*
Design stunning hospitals, cure peculiar illnesses and manage troublesome staff as you spread your budding healthcare organisation across Two Point County.
*Offer ends September 5 at 10AM Pacific Time
