Steam is getting some big upgrades for game demos

Valve has introduced some changes to Steam that should make it easier to find and install playable game demos. In a new events blog post, Steam said the “Great Steam Demo Update” was based on developer and player feedback, with new functionality that makes demos behave more like standalone games hosted on the platform.

For one, demos can now have a store page that’s completely separate from the main game, allowing developers to display demo-specific content like trailers, screenshots, and supported features. These pages will also display buttons to both install the demo and visit the main game’s store page, and allow players to leave demo-specific reviews.

And if a demo becomes available for a game that users have on their wishlists, or from a developer that they follow, those users can now be notified via email or mobile alerts. Demo listings can also now appear on the same lists and category pages as free games, such as the “New & Trending” section of Steam’s homepage charts. Alongside free games, users may see demos appearing more frequently as Steam says it’s made “some changes to the thresholds” in order to “better balance them with paid products.”

Other new features in this update include the ability to add demos to Steam libraries without immediately installing them, allowing demos to be installed even if the user already owns the full game, and making it easier to remove demos by right-clicking on them. When the demos are uninstalled they’ll also be removed from the user’s library.

The visibility changes introduced in this update may resurface older demos on user accounts, with Steam saying “We’ve tried our best to clean up the demos that we expect you don’t care about anymore, but we may have missed some.”

Amusingly, Steam added a note in the “infrequently asked questions” section of the blog for users who don’t know that Steam’s demo icon is based upon the Compact Disc, not a dinner plate. Am I so old that we’re really at the point of modernizing the save icon / floppy disk gag?