Valve has rolled out an update to the Steam store which includes a custom release calendar for games that lets you keep up with new game releases. This is important because it helps with friction around discovering new games that cater to your own tastes. This cuts out the effort of manually keeping up with release dates from various places. Instead it's built right in to the experience you're already doing every day.
New feature uses playtime data to filter upcoming game suggestions
The new release calendar is now live on the main Steam store (it was previously in Steam Labs for testing). It shows you recently released and upcoming games it recommends to you based on your own game history. It re-trains those recommendations daily based on your most recent game activity. That way it ensures the recommendations are up-to-date and in line with what you're doing at the moment.
The way the release calendar is built it makes an effort to make sure it's diverse when suggesting games to you (i.e. to avoid bubbles). It's mostly tuned to suggest what you're playing the most of. For example if you play a new game it'll only affect your recommendations if you're spending a lot of time in that game. In other words it tries to make sure it's in line with your existing tastes instead of going after new trends.
We've been keeping an eye on Steam, including when we covered Valve makes non-Steam Windows games run. That previous update was around compatibility. This update is about discovery.
The release calendar is available to all Steam users right now and there's no extra setup required. It's another move toward a more personalized store experience on the platform.
Source: Valve, IXBT
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