New Steam Feature: Personal Calendar Shows Upcoming Releases

Steam is getting a new feature to help users discover new games and manage their spending: a "Personal Calendar" will show recently released titles and upcoming releases in the coming months that might be of interest to the individual user.

The game platform first shows releases from the past month in the personal calendar, before listing the releases of the coming weeks chronologically. The preview currently extends to December 12th. The number of titles displayed can be adjusted within the calendar itself. Steam can display anywhere from 10 highly curated titles to 500 games, where the hit rate is likely to be somewhat lower.

The selection of potentially interesting titles is made by Steam based on playtime profiles. To do this, the platform analyzes a user's played titles and playtime and compares them with users who have similar playtime. The calendar then displays games that users with similar profiles have added to their wishlist.

Recommendations automatically adjusted

According to Steam operator Valve, the recommendation system is retrained daily to incorporate the latest data. Over time, recommendations can therefore change to accommodate, for example, a shift in gaming taste. If desired, the calendar view can also be set to show only games on one's own wishlist. In this case, the recommendation system becomes an overview function.

Additionally, you can filter the displayed games by tags. The listed titles are based on the content settings defined in the account, which can, for example, hide content with violence or sexual acts.

Previously, Valve only provided recommendations for future games in list form; the calendar view is more organized and invites browsing.

(dahe)