Valve have spent the past year or so gradually updating the Steam interface, partly to bring parity across its various forms such as the handheld Steam Deck and on-the-telly Big Picture mode. Now it’s virtual reality’s turn, with the launch of SteamVR 2.0.
SteamVR 2.0 includes “most of the current features of Steam and Steam Deck”. There’s an updated keyboard with new languages and emojis, integrated Steam Chat and Voice Chat, and a better store interface that highlights VR games.
The announcement post also claims that the “update also allows us to add new Steam features in the future much faster and more frequently”. There’s a full set of release notes through on the post, too, including a breakdown of changes that impact Meta headset users and Linux players.
I still use my Valve Index a few times a month to poke around in some games or stare listlessly at the Steam interface. I therefore welcome these changes. I have several times used the Steam store in VR and wondered why it didn’t prioritise actual virtual reality games, for example. I don’t see fixes listed for any of the several bugs I regularly encounter, sadly.
That said, I still don’t find any platform’s Steam interface great. Why does “News” falls under the “Store” menu, but “Market” comes under “Community”? Why is every game store page “Live” with a fold-out, pre-recorded video which has been looping for years? Why has the Steam Curators section been left to be overrun by game key-chasing chancers? Why is nearly every item in the desktop client’s dropdown menus followed by an ellipsis…?
Steam itself turned 20 earlier this year and Edwin spoke to Valve about the making of the platform.
