Looks like Steam is getting a brand new Downloads page

Oh my word, that waste of vertical space! Unless these shots are from a 480p screen or something. I just fired up Steam to check and I can see (on my 1080p monitor) 6 games at once, twice as many as both of those screenshots show. (Though, strangely, going to that link I see 4 games entirely on screen for me, unlike the 3.1 for Liam. Very strange how it's different for different people. Maybe they're testing different versions based on account number or something?). Granted, I don't spend much time on the Downloads page in general, but the new version is no less annoying to click each update button individually, so I echo the call for an "Update everything" button.

The wasted space indeed.
This looks horrible.

Valve could just display the small informations (downloaded, total download size, ETA) below each thumbnails alongside controls like (download / pause, cancel).
That way you could stuff as many game thumbnails close to each other like in the library page.

Those thumbnails could be sorted as above ; active, queued, scheduled, completed.

Why are you teasing me with that S&box download :(

Edit: nvm, it's xPaw who's teasing me :D


Last edited by Scrumplex on 26 May 2021 at 9:46 am UTC

The wasted space indeed.
This looks horrible.

Valve could just display the small informations (downloaded, total download size, ETA) below each thumbnails alongside controls like (download / pause, cancel).
That way you could stuff as many game thumbnails close to each other like in the library page.

Those thumbnails could be sorted as above ; active, queued, scheduled, completed.

I never had more than half a dozen games to download, and if I would, I wouldn't care to watch them downloading..

+1 for a "download all" button. Also, I'd like to be able to change the priority by dragging and dropping instead of just using the button that brings a download to the top. They could sort of make it like the Steam wishlist where you can drag and drop to prioritize. And why not make the look a bit more coherent while you're at it?

Although, that might only be an issue for people like me

No, no Liam there are others

Complaints about the steam downloader aside, it's still the best downloader among all of the big-name game clients. Frankly these screenshots don't seem all that much different then the old version, just a somewhat boring refresh.

But Epic, Uplay, Origin, EA Desktop, Battlenet, Amazon Games, MS Store + Xbox PC, even GOG Galaxy? I'd say Battlenet is the least awful of those, but we're talking king of the poo-pile among that bunch.

Of all of them together, the only one I never have problems with updating, pausing, stopping, altering queue order at all, installing, verifying, is Steam. Just these basic functions. I could break down my problems with every one of these clients, and it's amazing how the industry has settled where it has.

Honestly I have strong suspicions as to why, being adjacent over the years to a bunch of devs of different ages but not being one myself, and I don't see the trend getting better any time soon; It truly is an industry thing.

Flat, weird spacing, ghastly colours: good job, Valve!

Maybe one of these days they try to fix something that could actually be useful like the crackling of their build in voice-chat or the resource wastefulness of their new design.

ehh people have different versions.. from the Liams picture he seems to have quite a different one.. i get this:

!https://i.imgur.com/de89jhr.png

The new download page doesn't show workshop downloads and shader pre-caching. :(

I've tested it myself now and i get this version:

!steam download

Am I the only one who, every time I see "Master Chief" always thinks "Master Chef"?

I've literally been using Big Picture to access the Downloads and manually que the updates for over 500 games. It's my biggest annoyance since the new UX update.

I can't welcome a "All Downloads" page fast enough. Godspeed Mr Gaben.

not really an improvement if you ask me - no new features, but more space wasted and a more boring, flat design (while the old one was flat to begin with!).
But i don't see much room for improvement anyway...maybe it would be nice to have an easy way to alter the scheduled times, but other than that i don't really see anything amiss ^^

What is up with you guys having to download all the updates as soon as you know they exist? I let my "queued for later" list do its thing. It's called letting a computer be a computer. Am I going to play like 5 games in the same day? No. Am I even going to play one of those games in the next week? Unlikely. Let it be.

You know an application hasn't gotten a facelift in a long time when a tiny UI change with no new functionality is newsworthy! Ha.

What is up with you guys having to download all the updates as soon as you know they exist? I let my "queued for later" list do its thing. It's called letting a computer be a computer. Am I going to play like 5 games in the same day? No. Am I even going to play one of those games in the next week? Unlikely. Let it be.

You know an application hasn't gotten a facelift in a long time when a tiny UI change with no new functionality is newsworthy! Ha.

I know I do, but for me it's a combination of having slow internet for a very long time (not so much anymore, still slower then "city-folk" speeds along with my complete lack of ability to stand pending anything). Some people can ignore pending notification/unread counts on their phones for instance, and some cannot (of course, on my phone, this is solved by just turning the notifications off). When you have slow internet, you think differently, because if an urge to play a game comes up you typically want to play it now-or-soon, not in a day or two. This is also why I have ~1500 games installed at once. I routinely run through all my clients and install any updates that are pending.

That said, I'm surprised so many people here don't seem to grasp why Steam doesn't update games immediately. Of course they wouldn't, they're pretty obviously staggering updates to ease pressure on their network+servers, but _giving the option to do it now anyway_. I'm sure it's the same reason an update all button does not exist (although I would love that as well, but I do understand it).

I assert again that it's still friendlier then other clients, take uPlay for instance. That one only auto updates games you recently launched; If you haven't, you actually have to launch the game to get the current update to download.


Last edited by dibz on 30 May 2021 at 4:16 pm UTC

It will *never* do its thing because the download times are *always* when my computer is turned off.

Did you actually try this? Because I'd expect a semi clever program to maybe try that once or twice, but then download when it is active. Which would be fine with the goal to not have huge load on the servers when an update for a popular game has been released.

What is up with you guys having to download all the updates as soon as you know they exist? I let my "queued for later" list do its thing.

1) It will *never* do its thing because the download times are *always* when my computer is turned off.

How sure are you about that? My computer goes to sleep all the time. Not only that, I don't run Steam all that often. My computer is absolutely not online during most of the scheduled updates, yet they happen automatically. I dare you to test it. Of course, if it's just a pet peeve of yours, then that's what it is and that's that.

I absolutely hate this new design (talking about the oversimplifying Trend) Why can’t they just leave things as they are or at least give people the chance to change to the original design.

I absolutely hate this new design (talking about the oversimplifying Trend) Why can’t they just leave things as they are or at least give people the chance to change to the original design.

Well... They weren't good. I mean, from a usability perspective. If I understood correctly, I can now define the download queue with drag and drop, while before, I had to push the up arrow on the games in order... but in reverse order. Same for library places: The new interface can do more. And in my humble opinion, it also looks better, but well, that's just taste, isn't it?


Last edited by Eike on 10 September 2021 at 5:46 pm UTC

I absolutely hate this new design (talking about the oversimplifying Trend) Why can’t they just leave things as they are or at least give people the chance to change to the original design.

Well... They weren't good. I mean, from a usability perspective. If I understood correctly, I can now define the download queue with drag and drop, while before, I had to push the up arrow on the games in order... but in reverse order. Same for library places: The new interface can do more. And in my humble opinion, it also looks better, but well, that's just taste, isn't it?

Agree. While I don't think it's especially great, it's still slightly better than it was before. I don't get the "oversimplification" argument, since it was even more lacking in functionality before. As far as I can see, they didn't remove anything, but they did add more features, some of which I find somewhat helpful.