Valve Software has announced a major update to Steam, their online gaming platform, which will include a handful of community-focused features intended to expand Steam's offerings beyond simple digital distribution. This will be the largest update to the Steam platform in over three years.The update, which is due sometime in July, will allow users to build Steam profiles, create and join groups, build pages, and participate in voice chat sessions. The update will also allow players to interact with Steam games in new ways, such as checking play histories, and scheduling future multiplayer matches. According to the press release, these features will be available for all Steam-distributed titles, and many will be accessible from both the Steam application and Valve's website.
These changes will put Steam into more direct competition with services like Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade, which offers digitally-distributed content on top of a rich community system, and GameTap, which has recently begun to offer free content and is coming to the Mac platform shortly.
