Valve won't let devs frontload Steam screenshot galleries with a dozen trailers anymore, says many don't know 'how best to manage' the space

pcgamer.com:

Valve loves tweaking and futzing with Steam to ensure that everything is running just so. Some of it is front-facing, like the recent beta client update(opens in new tab) that added «game notes» and a slew of other new features, and some happens more in the background—for instance, the discount policy changes(opens in new tab) for developers it rolled out in early 2022. But even by those measures, the changes that went live today(opens in new tab) are really granular.

Steam store pages are now limited to just two videos on the left-hand side of the thumbnail row. Developers can add as many as they like, but any excess videos will be display on the right-hand of the thumbnail row, after the screenshots. Page owners can set which two videos they want before the screenshots, and which will come after, through the «Edit Store Page» section in Steamworks.

«Ideally you'll want to give players a good look at the gameplay of your game in as short a time as possible,» Valve said. «We recommend that your first trailer be one that features primarily gameplay, clearly demonstrating what the player will be doing in the game and how they will be interacting with the world you've built. Save your company logos or narrative storylines for further into your trailer once you've gotten the interest of a player.»

So, for instance, Vampire: The Masquerade — Blood(opens in new tab)hunt, which used to have a ton of videos at the front of its thumbnail row (and, for the record, is also an excellent battle royale), now looks like this:

All the rest of the videos are now at the very end of the thumbnail row:

Developers can also now tag each video with a category, which will be displayed on the store page «to help players identify the videos they