Steam is the best platform for game discovery, says former Valve dev, but that's awful news for the industry: "They're pretty bad at introducing the uninitiated consumer to new games"

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Steam is the best platform for game discovery, says former Valve dev, but that's awful news for the industry: "They're pretty bad at introducing the uninitiated consumer to new games" News By Ashley Bardhan published 12 December 2025

Steam wins, but at what cost?

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Steam Labs co-creator and industry veteran Ichiro Lambe has a big problem with game discoverability, something Steam Labs tries to address in its experimental features for browsing. The problem is: game discovery sucks.

"No, Game Discovery Actually Is Broken," reads the title for a LinkedIn post Lambe made on December 10. He explains, "I see studios going out of business because their games are failing to reach their target audiences. The discovery ecosystem is more broken now than I've ever seen it in my decades in the industry."

Having worked at Valve with the explicit task of improving its game discovery features with Steam Labs, Lambe is confident "Steam's discovery (my meager contributions aside) is miles ahead of every other media platform, but I also think – and I say this with love – that that's like saying they're the tallest hobbit."

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He observes that storefronts don't actually want users to discover new games – they want the opposite to be true, for players to already know what they want so that they can simply log on and check out.

"Storefronts are built to be bottom of funnel: 'You're interested in this game? Let's get you to the buy button,' says Lambe. "They're pretty bad at introducing the uninitiated consumer to new games." What's the fix, then? Spending more time on Steam's new and trending lists, I guess, at your own risk.

Valve artist says that's "like saying food products shouldn't have their ingredients list" as Epic's Tim Sweeney and more call on Steam to drop the 'Made with AI' label.

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Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. TOPICS Valve CATEGORIES PC Gaming Platforms Ashley BardhanSenior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.

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Logout Read more "They just keep winning": Steam was already beating every store at finding games, and it just got better with custom calendars showing recent and upcoming games Valve thinks you'll like    Baldur's Gate 3 publishing lead says there's a reason Steam is so popular: "It's almost as if it isn't providing a s**t service"    "In other words, 72% don't know what a monopoly is," analyst says of study that finds 72% of game devs "see Steam as a monopoly"    "Of course, you must be on Steam. But Steam isn't the entire world": CEO of game distribution company says yes, some PC gamers prefer "local" stores to Valve's mega-shop, and China is a huge factor    Valve artist says that's "like saying food products shouldn't have their ingredients list" as Epic's Tim Sweeney and more call on Steam to drop the 'Made with AI' label    Valve gave the Steam store a new look, and oh no, I hate it    Latest in Games MMO adds Christmas event, accidentally fills city fountain with pee: "A fix is planned"    King's Field-inspired fantasy action RPG gets 50,000 wishlists in one week    "We apologize": Monster Hunter Wilds to get "Steam-specific stability patch" in January, nearly a year after launch, as Capcom ends major updates    GTA 6 dev Rockstar doubles down and calls union busting claims "entirely false and misleading"    Blizzard announces Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred ahead of The Game Awards    For one Spider-Man 2, you could make 30 Clair Obscur: Expedition 33s, as dev reveals it cost less than $10 million    Latest in News Steam is the best platform for game discovery, says former Valve dev, but that's awful news for the industry    Stranger Things co-creator cryptically teases season 5 part 2: "It's gonna be a long six day wait for the finale"    Disney and OpenAI strike a deal that will allow users to generate videos of Disney Princesses, Darth Vader, Mickey Mouse, Deadpool, and more    Fallout star Walton Goggins says the Ghoul's season 2 backstory "broke my heart": "I can't wait for people to see where it ultimately goes"    The official Fallout season 1 recap is filled with AI and thinks the show is set in the 1950s    Helldivers 2 High Command thinks we suck on Magma Planets, but don't worry, at least the Killzone collab is returning    GAME REVIEWSMOVIE REVIEWSTV REVIEWS

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