(Image credit: Valve)
From a quick look, a default selection of 100 games feels balanced. Expanding to 250 or 500 turns the calendar into an unwieldy, scrolling list; at 100 entries you still get a broad selection but the layout remains readable.
On October 23 the calendar shows the action roguelike Godbreakers arriving — presumably because I enjoyed the demo. Later that week appears Slots & Daggers, a gambling roguelike that quickly impressed Ali. November 5 lists the roguelike strategy title Vivid World, November 6 brings the instant-banger Unbeatable, November 10 features cyberpunk deckbuilder Into the Grid, and November 19 lists Demonschool and Moonlighter 2.
Those examples are all from my wishlist, so the calendar is handy for spotting release dates at a glance and catching up on the past month’s launches. But will it surface unfamiliar games? In my experience, yes — it’s effective at putting new titles in front of you.
Hovering over calendar entries plays trailers inline, so you don’t need to open separate store pages to preview a title. A quick pass through my calendar added a few new entries to my wishlist — the sci-fi immersive sim Ambrosia Sky and the charming action RPG The Lonesome Guild. I can see myself checking this calendar frequently to get a broader view of upcoming weeks — it’s useful even if tracking trends isn’t part of your day job.
As a Steam Labs experiment, the calendar is still being refined but already feels robust. You can filter by genre tags when you want to focus on RPGs, FPS games, co-op experiences, or other types. If you prefer Valve not to influence the list, you can restrict the calendar to only show titles you’ve added to your wishlist.
Valve asks for user feedback on the experiment: “Do you find this format of recommendations to be useful? What do you think about this new set of recommendations and calendar view? Are there other things we should include on the calendar? Does it seem to be generating good recommendations for you?”
Yes, this feature ultimately encourages spending — Valve takes a cut — but no platform matches Steam for broad game visibility, and tools like this underline why. Dave Oshry from New Blood Interactive shared Valve’s calendar announcement and summed it up bluntly: “They just keep winning.” (source).
Not long ago, Steam added another unexpectedly useful feature: a dedicated page displaying every bundle that contains a particular game — a small change that turned out to be surprisingly handy.
Source: gamesradar.com
