User reviews on Steam may get more informative after Thursday’s Steam Client Beta update, which adds the ability for users to attach their hardware specs to game reviews. Steam users have always had the option to share their specs in the text of their reviews, but being able to automatically include that data could encourage more users to add it and possibly make reviews more useful.
When a user submits a negative review or reports performance issues, the attached hardware specs can reveal the reason, highlighting when performance issues may be caused by the player’s hardware rather than a problem with the game itself (such as specs that are below the game’s recommended minimum). This option will appear as a check box next to the text box where users write their reviews, so users who don’t want to share their hardware data can simply leave the box unchecked.
Thursday’s beta update also includes an option for users to share anonymized frame rate data with Valve. The update notes state that this data will be “stored without connecting to your Steam account” and will be used to monitor game compatibility and improve Steam. However, right now this option is currently targeted at “devices running SteamOS”, Valve’s Linux-based operating system that runs on Steam Deck.