Access to your Steam Library is ending.

[Harrison]

Steam have announced that at the end of this year the Windows Steam library client will cease to work on Windows 7 and 8. This means you won't be able to access Steam and your library on these versions of Windows, and any games you have installed won't run.

The reason for this is Google are ending their Chrome browser support on these OSs and Steam uses Chrome to run so it will have the knock on effect of also no longer working.

This isn't great news because many long time gamers will have Steam libraries that date back many years. Mine for example dates back 19 years to 2004 when Steam first went public and was required by the Half Life 2 Orange Box to install and run the game.

Many older games have OS system compatibility that won't run well or at all in Windows 10 and 11.

The exception to this is the Steam Deck as it runs Linux Steam OS and it's own Steam client setup, and many older games run perfectly. So running Steam OS might end up being required if you are still using an older version of Windows and want to play your older games from your Steam library.

This isn't great as Valve should be supporting their long time customer base and maintaining library access and compatibility.

[Kin Hell]

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[Demon Cleaner]

****-steam.gif

Honestly mate, what do you NOT dislike?

[Kin Hell]

****-steam.gif

Honestly mate, what do you NOT dislike?

Lots of things.... but what's that got to do with having a sense of Humour?

Sometimes, a single picture can say a thousand words.

[J T]

This isn't great as Valve should be supporting their long time customer base and maintaining library access and compatibility.

I mean, I do agree with this but if it works through Steam OS (which I assume can be installed on almost anything that was capable of running windows 7 or 8) it's not like there's 'no option' it's more a case of 'the option is significantly less convenient' which is still a pain - but doable. I can see why Valve as a business aren't exactly keen to support OS that are pretty old now.

That being said, what's the alternative? Some kind of simple 'offline mode' to launch and play those older ones on w7/w8 without calling back to base?

- - - Updated - - -

****-steam.gif

Honestly mate, what do you NOT dislike?

I laughed equally at both the gif (it's funny) and DC's response (it's also funny)

[Harrison]

Steam OS as an option is true, but being Linux and using Proton to run Windows games means it's far from compatibility with everything. Steam has over 58k games in its library, so there will be a big percentage (expecially older games) that won't run. I've only tested about 40 games on my Steam Deck and 3 wouldnt run. None of those were mainstream games but still.

But the real point is all of these games released on Steam from 2004 onwards are still there, to download and play. Even if they get removed from the store they remain in your library to download. And a lot of the older games are not compatible with Windows 10, so to run them you would need to install them in XP, Vista or 7. If the Steam client can't run then you can't download the games and they won't run locally without the Steam client either. So even if you own the games, and they are only compatible with an older OS, you can't get them onto that compatible OS or run them if they are already there.

[Kin Hell]

This isn't great as Valve should be supporting their long time customer base and maintaining library access and compatibility.

I mean, I do agree with this but if it works through Steam OS (which I assume can be installed on almost anything that was capable of running windows 7 or 8) it's not like there's 'no option' it's more a case of 'the option is significantly less convenient' which is still a pain - but doable. I can see why Valve as a business aren't exactly keen to support OS that are pretty old now.

That being said, what's the alternative? Some kind of simple 'offline mode' to launch and play those older ones on w7/w8 without calling back to base?

Surely Steam could make all the incompatible games like abandonware, thereby allowing them to work without the need for the Steam Client running?

Or release something that checks the customers Account & can then run the games off Steam Client.

Change.... Not always for the better is it.

- - - Updated - - -

****-steam.gif

Honestly mate, what do you NOT dislike?

I laughed equally at both the gif (it's funny) and DC's response (it's also funny)

I laughed @ DC's response too!

[Harrison]

Most are still available to purchase via Steam, which makes it even worse. As the issue is just because the Steam client is tied to Chrome, and it is ending Windows support prior to 10, then why can't Stream build a client that runs without that need, even if only for older OSs, and just to access your library and run games. Wouldn't even need store access as you could just do that from a newer PC or even your phone.

[J T]

then why can't Stream build a client that runs without that need, even if only for older OSs, and just to access your library and run games.

Sounds like a non-trivial amount of work and I'm wondering what the value of it is, in a business sense, as I would imagine it represents a fraction of a fraction of income and they'd then be responsible for ongoing support of whatever solution they come up with. Note that I'm not saying they shouldn't but probably why they won't.

[Harrison]

The Thing is, if you watch the many videos and interviews with the Valve founders, and the whole ethos of Valve, it is their philosophy to support their whole userbase.

This is greatly highlighted by the Steam Deck. Most companies would just make a handheld in an attempt at a quick cashin. Valve took a very different approach. They spent years on R&D just to get the design and controls right, and it paid off. But they have also spents years working in Linux and developing for it. The earlier Linux based Steam OS versions for their older product attempts met with limited success and poor sales, but we can now see that wasn't their goal. With the Steam Deck, Steam OS 3 has finally seen a mature OS that is lightweight and allows PC games to be installed and launch as if they were running on a console. It is an impressive feet of development.

My point is Valve have developed the Steam Deck and Steam OS with the intent to support and run a much of their whole Steam library as possible. They are constantly updating Steam OS and Proton (the extraction layer that allows it to run PC games) to support and fix games to run in the Steam Deck. And this is not just be games, but games dating back over 20 years in the Steam library. I've been running games like X-Wing and Dark Forces, and these were released in the 90s.

I wouldn't be surprised if at some point we see a port of the Steam OS Steam client running in Windows to allow older games to run on older versions of Windows. At least that is my hope. I also have this idea that could work and would be a bit revolutionary. Imagine if they could get their Linux development of Proton running in Windows 10/11. This would allow older incompatible games to run. That's just a dream idea I don't expect to happen, but would be great if it ever did.

I am tempted to install Steam OS on a spare PC though. Just to remove the overheads and need for Windows for PC gaming. But also to test it out fully using hardware faster then the Steam Deck. As great as that is and it does provide great performance. It is a handheld and the hardware is tuned to that form factor. You dock it and run it with a nonitor, keyboard and mouse and it works fine, but you can tell it didn't have the GPU power to match a cheng console or PC in newer games. It still does a decent attempt at 60fps, which is fine for the casual gamer but wanting to splash out of a PC rig though.

Steam could easily create a TV console version of the Steam deck. Cheaper costs without the screen needed, and a separate controller would also benefit gaming on PC. And it would give PC games that console accessibility via Steam OS.