One of the most prominent game distribution platforms in the entire world, Steam, has recently updated their client. Valve's popular network has provided a number of updates over the past eighteen years in order to constantly refine and adapt the Steam user experience to the best of their abilities, and although not every change made to the program has been accepted by players the majority of PC users still prefer using Steam to other options like Good Old Games or the Epic Games Store.

As the years have gone on and more and more companies begin experimenting with their own digital storefronts, Valve has struggled at times to keep some of the more high-profile games on Steam. Some developers have been lured away by lucrative Epic Games exclusivity deals, and many others are afraid of becoming unnoticed in Steam's massive library, much of which is filled with asset flips and animated pornographic content. However, Steam continues to chug along as best it can, helped along by quality in-house titles like Half-Life: Alyx and regular program updates.

The most recent client update for Steam happened just today, and the official patch notes available on the company's website detail a fairly large amount of quality of life changes. The new Steam client update has fixed the problem players were having with the program's audio chat functions not working as well "when system is under heavy load" and has also improved FPS counters on the Steam Overlay for games like DOOM Eternal which are "using Vulkan async compute."


The new Steam client update also details a number of changes to Steam Input, including support for "the Thrustmaster ESwap Pro and Giotek VX4 PS4 Controllers" as well as the "PDP Afterglow Wireless Switch Controller (over BT only). The update is also said to improve the "performance and smoothness" of Steam's Remote Play Anywhere function, as well as multiple issues which were present in Steam's Big Picture Mode.

Interested players should definitely check out the full list of patch notes on Steam's website, but it's nice to see all areas of Valve's video game distribution network getting updated so consistently, so long after its initial release. Despite push-back from other companies like EA and Rockstar Games, who both have their own PC video game distribution outlets now, Steam still remains one of the most important for a reason, and giving players detailed information about all the changes they are making (and are planning on making) to their program is definitely one of the many reasons why they are still setting records for all-time concurrent users.