In the modern era, it’s often hard to keep up with the amount of media that’s available. It seems that everyone has a full queue on their streaming services, piles of books to read, and a plethora of unplayed games. While Steam can’t help with the former two problems, they are looking to help with the latter. The company is introducing a Play Next feature that will help players with lots of unplayed games choose which of their already purchased titles they should play next. It’s a rather unique concept, but it’s also one that could take off with Steam fans!
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According to Steam, the program uses the same algorithm as the Interactive Recommender, but it applies it to the existing library. So, essentially, players aren’t getting recommendations of games they don’t own, but what they have already purchased, instead. Up to three recommendations are made at a time, and each one includes the game’s top tags, and a micro-trailer that plays when the title is hovered over.
This is a really interesting concept! Streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu make suggestions to viewers about what to watch next; while Steam is not a game streaming platform, the fact is that most Steam users do have libraries big enough to make a function such as this one practical, at the very least. Thanks to options like Humble Bundle, and sales like Sega’s current offering for Sonic fans, it’s quite easy to amass a large collection of Steam games on the cheap. The Play Next feature could be an excellent way of preventing Steam users from forgetting about those titles.
Introducing Steam Labs Experiment 008: Play Next! 🔬
Got a bunch of unplayed games in your Steam library, unsure what to play next? 🤔
Let the Interactive Recommender system help you choose by predicting which of your games you’ll enjoy the most!https://t.co/VrD1ZJgrYd
— Steam (@Steam) February 13, 2020
Steam is already looking for feedback on the feature, and will likely make some adjustments based on how the audience feels about it. So far, Steam users seem open to the concept, but it will be interesting to see how accurate the suggestions end up being.
What do you think of Steam’s Play Next feature? Do you have a lot of unplayed games on the service? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!
