Steam revamps game demos with separate store pages, user reviews, and other features
Valve continues to improve the Steam platform, with the latest update focusing on game demos. The new features offer a complete overhaul of how they work and behave on the store.
Steam wants to make game demos “an even more powerful and flexible marketing tool,” the company said in a blog post. Here are the key new features added based on developer feedback:
- Devs can now create a separate store page for a demo to add screenshots, describe specific features, and upload a trailer (the page will also have a link to the full game);
- Such demos will be treated like any other free game on Steam, meaning users will be able to post reviews displayed on the page;
- Demos with separate pages won’t have visibility advantages on the store, but “if your demo ends up having a bunch of negative reviews it might be less appealing to potential players and may get filtered out of some views if the review score is too low”;
- Game demos will chart in the New & Trending section and other lists, with Valve saying that “launching a new free demo for your game will behave similarly as launching a free stand-alone game on Steam”;
- Any developer can now send email to wishlisters and followers of their base game about the release of a demo;
- Players can better manage and interact with demos in the Steam Library, e.g. adding demos to their account without immediately installing them.
Game demos have become an integral part of the Steam platform, especially as a great marketing tool during events like Next Fest. For example, around 1,800 demos were showcased during the latest festival last month. So it is great to see Valve giving developers more options to leverage this feature.
