Valve Launches Steam Labs Store Hubs Experiment

With Steam Labs Experiment 10 last December, we introduced dozens of new genres, categories, and tags to our store’s navigation. Today we’re launching Experiment 13, where we’ve revamped these destinations, or store hubs, with powerful new tools for browsing, filtering, and exploring deeper into each category.

When you join the experiment from the Steam Labs page, you will find that every category and tag page on the store has been updated, introducing these new layouts and features to hundreds of niche destinations throughout. You’ll encounter these pages by exploring the “Categories” drop-down in the store menu, or by clicking on tags from a game’s store page.

Rich Recommendations Carousel

The most notable feature of the new hubs is the carousel of featured games right at the top of the page. Much like our previous design, this area features new, top-selling, and discounted titles through the lens of our recommendations system which takes into account the games you’ve played, your friends’ recommendations, and the curators and developers you follow. The new carousel features more metadata about each game, including tags, release date, and review score, plus a large presentation of the game’s micro trailer, a feature which you may remember from Steam Labs Experiment 1.

Recent & Upcoming Events

Keep up to date on the latest news, updates, and events happening in games across Steam, niche by niche. Within each hub, you’ll find a section featuring in-game events, recent updates, and news posts from the developers of games you play, those you wish for, or those which are recommended for you.

More Personalized Recommendations

Our tag-driven recommendations are also listed for you on the new hubs, making it easy to discover titles tagged similarly to the games you’ve been enjoying.

Items from Your Wishlist

Relevant items you’ve added to your Wishlist are now conveniently displayed on every Store Hub.

Powerful Sorts & Filters

Our new content hub design features powerful new filtering tools which we first introduced with Steam Labs Experiment 12. This new section allows you to sort by new and trending, top selling, top rated, or discount amount. And you can filter by features, tags, or your own shopping preferences like language support or whether to hide some of the games you’ve already discovered.