Valve’s long-awaited Steam redesign is, if nothing else, something of an inevitability. The current client has done the job for several years, but is starting to show its age a little. That’s fine though, becuase we’ve known that the developer has been working on a new version of the storefront for a few years. Until now, however, we’ve only had one proper look at it.
That came in 2017, as images were discovered in the beta version of the client, showing off a game page for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Over the weekend, however, SteamDB developer Pavel Djundik tweeted an image that he says is “from a presentation in January” (via PCGamer).
The image shows a very image-focused page for Rainbow Six Siege’s entry in your Steam library. It’s cropped, but you can see a piece of key art at the top of the page, various screenshots, and then a description of the game’s latest update (attached to Operation Health). That top image looks as though it’ll provide a means to watch Rainbow Six esports in-client.
The slide that the cropped image comes from says that the new client’s library will comes with “a rich display of content.” By the looks of things, that means that everything from community screenshots, to official events, to what your friends are up to, will be displayed in the library.
Just remembered that Valve's been working on a Steam redesign for years now. Here's a picture from a presentation in January.
It certainly doesn't look like the SteamU leak from 2 years ago: https://t.co/KjoRK8OnLA pic.twitter.com/2fG2acIIz8
— Pavel Djundik (@thexpaw) November 25, 2018
It’s worth noting that these images are drastically different to those we saw around two years ago in the Steam client beta. Those showed off a library more similar to what you can already seen in the platform’s Big Picture mode, as well as a better mobile display. Given that it’s been several months since that last presentation, it’s very possible that there have been several new changes, but we’ll have to wait and see.
There’s been no official word on the new client (at least nothing that Valve has made public) so we’ll likely be waiting a while to see the finished product on our screens. If you need some new Valve software in your life however, check out our Artifact review-in-progress. The company’s first major release in years launches this week, the first step on their return to coming out with regular new releases.