Steam Search Just Got a Whole Lot More Useful

Valve just issued a major update for its game distribution platform, Steam, that completely changes up the search function. 

Using the quick search tab on Steam now pulls up tags, developers, publishers, franchises, and more. Before this update, most of this had to be completed manually. For instance, you’d have to open up the developer’s main page and click on each game, one by one, to find something you liked. Now you can just put in publishers like Square Enix and get a complete list, and the same goes for smaller developers. 

This feature extends to the auto-suggestion drop-down, and you can also search for entire categories, with Valve giving "free to play" as an example. Additionally, the search feature is now more forgiving to misspelled queries, which is of particular use when looking for a JRPG with an excessively long and complicated name. 

Valve says these changes impact the web store, desktop client, and mobile clients. In other words, all of the ways you buy games on Steam. It couldn't have happened at a better time, as the wallet-busting annual Summer Steam Sale begins next month. Valve says this update is already fully integrated, so go forth and search. 

In related news, both Sony and Microsoft also recently made changes to search. The PlayStation store began adding accessibility tags to games, and the Xbox PC app now lets you search for titles based on accessibility and estimated playtimes.