Valve has introduced Personal Calendar on Steam, a feature that constantly refreshes game recommendations for users based on their playing habits. The company released the tool on Friday, describing it as a way to bridge the gap between players hunting for trending or niche titles and those who prefer suggestions tailored to their tastes. It is available now to Steam users in the US and elsewhere.
Personal Calendar generates its suggestions by matching a user's recently played games against the libraries of players with similar profiles, according to Valve. The system also weighs how much time those comparable players have logged and what sits on their wishlists. Valve said sampling a new game for just a few minutes will not sway the algorithm much, because it places the most weight on titles a user has spent substantial time with.
The calendar updates every day, with Valve retraining its user-specific algorithms regularly to incorporate the latest data. Even so, the company said day-to-day shifts will be limited, and players should expect fresh suggestions to emerge over roughly an eight-week window or when developers lock in release dates for upcoming games.
Valve said Personal Calendar went through several months of testing and feedback inside Steam Labs, its program for trying out experimental changes to store and discovery features. During that period, players clicked on more than 2,000 different games through Personal Calendar in an average 24-hour span, according to the company.
The launch fits into Valve's broader push to respond to complaints that the Steam store is cluttered and difficult to navigate. Earlier this year, Steam rolled out a new storefront that added a search menu and introduced Categories aimed at helping players locate new games more easily. Personal Calendar is the latest addition to that effort.
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