Valve makes Steam store pages wider, improves trailer and screenshot carousel

Valve has made various improvements to the Steam Store this year, here's one more. Steam store pages are now wider.

Up until now, the width of store pages has been 940 pixels, which left quite a bit of unused space on either side of the screen. In order to improve this, Valve began testing an updated design that supports 1200 pixel width.

So, why 1200 pixels? According to Steam's Hardware Survey, a lot of gamers have 4k monitors with widescreen resolutions. Well, it's less than 10%. I wouldn't call that a lot, but over 25% of users have a 2K monitor. I think that's important to consider, because Valve says not many people run the Steam client or web browsers in full screen mode, and based on its tests, it found 1200 pixels wide was optimal than 940p.

Here's a comparison screenshot, courtesy Valve, that shows how the page looked prior to this update, and now.

There's still a bit of wasted space on the sides, but it looks a lot better than before, even on lower resolutions like 1080p. Text is slightly larger, images are crisper, it's neat. And it's important to note that this is not restricted to the Steam client, it also applies to Steam's website. It's useful when you access it from a web browser. Valve says that Steam's store pages adapt dynamically to fit smaller monitors, browsers, tablets, Steam Decks and Mobile Devices. It said it even worked on an old iPod with a tiny screen.

The wider store page layout is not available for Steam's homepage. Valve says it is working on it, and that it will be available in the near future. Search results are wider, with slightly larger tiles for the game's image.

Valve has also made some changes to the video player and screenshot carousel. It now supports 3 modes: default, theater mode, full-screen mode. Clicking on a video lets you switch from the default view to theater view or full-screen mode. Images on Steam are now higher in resolution. The "About the Game" section now supports bigger and higher-quality images, and new formatting options. Store pages now have background imagery, making them more immersive.

On a side note, Apple launched its App Store on the web last week. You can now browse categories, view recommendations, check the Today page. It also lets you search for apps, games, making it a lot more usable than the bare-bones web version it had before.

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