Valve makes major changes to Steam game demos, offering store pages, reviews, and more

Valve is continuing its slow and steady updates plan for Steam. The latest section of the PC gaming platform that it has taken aim at are the game demos. Dubbed "The Great Steam Demo Update," in addition to Steam client updates, the fresh changes are giving developers the opportunity to serve game demos to Steam players almost like they are standalone games, with separate store pages, user reviews, and more.

"With thousands of new playable game demos launching every year, often as part of Steam Next Fest, we've noticed some trends in feedback from developers and players about changes they'd like to see made to the process and functionality," says Valve in its announcement of the demo changes. "So, we've put together an update based on that feedback."

The biggest change could easily be the ability for developers to have a separate store page just for a game demo, instead of being a part of a game page like now. When enabled, the demo will even feature user reviews and appear in the front page in "New & Trending" or "New on Steam" lists. Keep in mind that this is an optional feature, and the current demo offering system will remain the default setting.

Moreover, when a developer launches a demo for their game, anyone who has wishlisted that game will also be notified now of this release.

Lastly, here are the consumer-facing changes Valve has made to make installing and removing demos an easier affair for players.

• You can add demos to your library without immediately installing them. You'll find an 'add to library' button appearing for demos now that let you add to your library from the mobile app or other places where you may not be ready to install them immediately.
• Demos can be installed even if you already own the full game. Primarily, this will make it easier for developers to test demos, but it will also help players more easily manage installing/uninstalling demos.
• Demos can be explicitly removed from account by right-clicking > manage > remove from account.
• When a demo is uninstalled, it will automatically get removed from your library.

These changes are now live on Steam for both users checking out demos as well as game developers using Valve's Steamworks development tools.