Steam

Valve has rolled out a new Steam client update dated December 19, and it’s already being automatically distributed to users.

The most significant change is the transition to a 64-bit Steam client on Windows 10 and Windows 11 systems running 64-bit editions. Valve says systems still using 32-bit versions of Windows will continue to receive updates to the 32-bit Steam client until January 1, 2026, giving remaining users time to migrate.

This is the sale event you've been waiting on isn't it? The Steam Winter Sale 2025 has arrived with a great many thousands of games discounted. No doubt the Steam store will be a little flaky for a while, as it usually struggles to cope with the increased demand of everyone madly throwing their payment cards at the servers.

Valve's Steam Awards is also now open for voting, with nominations over. No big surprise in the final nominations for Game of the Year which includes:

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
ARC Raiders
Dispatch
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
Hollow Knight: Silksong

All of them are on sale too.

Valve have released Steam Replay for 2025, showing off some interesting stats about your gaming and how it stacks up against everyone on Steam.

Interestingly, this year they note that only 14% of gaming was "spent by all Steam users in new releases (games released in 2025)". That's actually down a single digit percentage from last year, but continues to show that with the onslaught of over 19,000 games from 2025 that a lot of people continue playing through their older games. According to the stats 44% of playtime from all Steam users were for releases from the last 1-7 years, and 40% playtime from all Steam users was spent on releases from 8 or more years ago.

Valve's stats don't include time spent in offline mode or when you're without internet.

https://redlib.catsarch.com/r/Steam/comments/1pn3jm0/the_antitrust_case_against_valve_is_collapsing/

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.wawd.298754/gov.uscourts.wawd.298754.552.0.pdf

Besides Valve funding FEX-Emu for x86_64 binaries to run on AArch64 Linux as part of their Steam Play (Proton) efforts in being able to get Windows x86/x64 games running on AArch64 SteamOS for the Snapdragon-powered Steam Frame, there is also work happening in kernel-space to help this emulated gaming experience on AArch64.

André Almeida of consulting firm Igalia, which has been longtime partners with Valve on their Linux engineering efforts, presented at the Linux Plumbers Conference last weekend on enhancing the Linux kernel's Futex interfaces for helping ARM64 with an emphasis on a better emulated gaming experience. Igalia has also been helping Valve with the open-source graphics support for the Steam Frame, the color management pipeline / HDR initiatives, and other efforts like crash data collection on the Steam Deck.

Warn you if there’s a way you could get a product for cheaper before you purchase it.

ShiraNamiNani discovered this feature while purchasing Unrailed 2: Back on Track. At press time, this game was 30% off, for a total of $13.99. However, the Unrailed Collection Bundle, which includes both Unrailed 2: Back on Track and its predecessor, had a bigger discounted rate of 58%, meaning it only cost $13.58 – 41 cents cheaper than buying just the second game on its own. This is likely what triggered this alert, as it allowed them to not only save money but also get an extra game in the process.

"they will not be recommended to purchase the larger version if the total cost is still higher."

More Link: https://www.gamingbible.com/news/platform/steam/steam-store-addition-saves-you-money-194091-20251213

Showing just how insane it is to be a game developer right now, we've hit an all-time high for game releases on Steam in 2025 and not many get seen.

Taken from SteamDB, we can see from their data that there's been 19,008 games for 2025. That is a lot of games to be launching in a single year, which is up from 18,558 games in 2024 and 14,111 in 2023. This is a reminder that developers are not just competing with new releases when launching a game, but everything on Steam with many older titles remaining incredibly popular.

Showing just how difficult it can be to actually get a game in front of an audience, of the 19,008 from this year, a whopping 9,269 games have 10 or fewer reviews. There is a slight silver lining here though, as it appears the number of games receiving at least 100 reviews have been growing over the years since 2020. It's a bit lower than 2024 right now, but that will likely even-out before the end of 2025.

At this time an open source HDMI 2.1 implementation is not possible without running afoul of the HDMI Forum requirements.

This is going to be horrible for my free time. Substructure sounds like a real interesting entry into the factory building automation genre. Coming from the developer of the popular Factorio mod Ultracube, now going by Dubious Design and publisher Hooded Horse. With vertical layers, it's set to add some interesting design choices.

More about it: "Set on a rogue planet that appears at the far reaches of the solar system, players will be tasked with leading an expedition to uncover the mysteries of this interstellar interloper. Establish complex automated factories and production chains on the lush surface of this alien world, all to support further exploration below the crust. Players can also work alone or with friends as they build around intricate caverns, and exploit alien resources hidden beneath the surface, driving the light of industrialization to the very depths. What mysteries will awaken and what dangerous threats will emerge remain to be seen…"

Valve just launched their latest upgrade for Proton Experimental to get as many Windows games as possible running on Linux / SteamOS. This update rolled out on December 9th and in case you missed it Valve also recently release the huge Proton 10 update.

It turns out that not only are Valve using the open source FEX for the Steam Frame but they have been funding FEX since the beginning of it.

What exactly is FEX? FEX allows you to run x86 applications on ARM64 Linux devices, similar to qemu-user and box64. It offers broad compatibility with both 32-bit and 64-bit binaries, and it can be used alongside Wine/Proton to play Windows games.

One problem with a lot of modern games is just how big they're getting, but HELLDIVERS 2 is about to massively shrink thanks to work behind the scenes. In a news post on Steam the developers at Arrowhead Game Studios noted they pulled in Nixxes to help get it sorted.

They were making small changes across a few patches, but now the big stuff is here and you can try it out in a Steam Beta via the "prod_slim" branch. Right click the game, go to Properties -> Beta and select "prod_slim" from the drop-down box. The result should be a reduction in installation size from "~154GB to ~23GB". What an insane difference.

The Steam Survey results are out for November 2025 and continue to be very positive for the growing adoption of Linux gaming thanks to the success of the Steam Deck, the underlying Steam Play (Proton) software, and now further excitement thanks to the upcoming Steam Machine and Steam Frame.

A decade ago in the early Steam days the initial use was around 3% and back then the Steam user-base in absolute terms was much smaller than it is today. Back in October Steam on Linux finally re-crossed that 3% threshold after for years being stuck in a 1~2% rut. Now the Steam Survey results were published minutes ago for November and they continue an upward trend for Linux.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney opposes Steam's "Made with AI" label for games, arguing AI involvement is inevitable in future development and such tags are unnecessary outside art and licensing contexts. He emphasizes that mandatory AI disclosures for games are impractical and not meaningful for consumers.

Following on from a bigger Proton Experimental update for Linux / SteamOS last week, a smaller bug-fix update has rolled out for the Windows compatibility tool. This is just to clear up a few pesky issues people have encountered.

Here's the changes for the November 26th update:

• Fixed Xalia not interacting correctly with dialogs produced by ARC Raiders.
• Fixed Proton Experimental regression that caused games like Uno and Far Cry 4 to not start.
• Fixed voice line playback in Rigid Force Alpha.

It's not officially out yet, but you can now jump in early to Soulframe, the in-development action RPG from the developers of the popular Warframe. A Steam page is also now live that you can follow it on, for whenever it actually releases properly. Considering it's from the Warframe developers, I expect it to be another big one.

Not heard of it? An open world fantasy RPG adventure with themes influenced by nature and restoration. With a hand-crafted world you will explore an "ancient, broken land and inherit the courage, spirit, and grace of Ancestors to mend earthly flesh and heal its land from Ode’n reign".

Announced on the official forum, founder packs for it are also now live so you can purchase it to get into it early. Until now, you had to sign up for a chance to be invited via email, so you can skip all that if you really want to get in on it during development. It's not cheap though, as getting all three of the characters appears to be £84.99 with them £24.99 individually and you get an assortment of extras with them too. At release much like Warframe, it will be free to play.

Reus 2 from Abbey Games recently had a big upgrade, and now it's Steam Deck Verified / SteamOS Compatible with full support from the developer.

What is it? It's all about shaping worlds as one of 6 powerful giants each with their own unique abilities. Your choices will determine the fate of the planet and its inhabitants. And as you progress, you'll unlock more new skills for your giants too. Humanity does its own thing though, and may even turn against you.

It's Black Friday Monday, because nowadays it's a whole week thing and thanks to Valve you can grab a great deal on the Steam Deck too!

Valve have once again given the Steam Deck LCD 256GB a 20% discount, marking it down from £349 to £279.20. While there's numerous other handhelds that are more powerful, this is an absolute bargain for the support you actually get for the Steam Deck directly which only continues to improve with huge updates like the recent screen-off downloads. You can grab the deal direct from Steam.

While it's not quite Verified for Steam Deck just yet, Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault should be a reasonably good experience. It's rated Playable by Valve, with a note that some text is a bit too small. The developer has confirmed they plan to solve that as soon as possible too.

So what is it? From the Steam page: "Dive deep into Action-RPG with roguelike elements and a tale about new beginnings. With no coin to your name, you and the other townsfolk find yourselves stranded in the distant village of Tresna. Now, it’s up to you to get back on your feet and turn your humble shop into the beating heart of the village’s wealth. Explore dangerous dungeons, gather relics, sell them, and reinvest in your friends’ establishments. Unlock new weapons, armor, shop decorations, and—more importantly—restore hope that things can one day turn around."

A fresh Proton Experimental update from Valve for the weekend with various game fixes for SteamOS / Linux. If you missed it, Valve also released Proton 10 recently.

It will show up in your Steam Downloads as an update for Proton Experimental if you have it installed. Otherwise, it will automatically download if you go to play a game that Valve has set for Proton Experimental by default. Or, you can manually search for Proton Experimental in your Steam Library to install it and try it on some games. See all the details on the different Proton versions in the GamingOnLinux Guide. Listed below is all the changes for the November 21st update.

SteamOS 3.7.18 Beta "Old Enough to Vote" was released by Valve today, bringing in a few more fixes for some annoying sounding issues. In case you live under a rock we're also getting some new SteamOS systems with the Steam Frame and Steam Machine you should go and read up on.

As it's a Beta you'll need to change your system updates channel to test it, or just wait for Valve to roll it out for the next stable SteamOS Linux release. You can change it via Settings > System > System Update Channel. The most recent stable update is SteamOS 3.7.17 from early November.