If you’re a Discord user and really want a new Steam Chat client, then Valve has good news for you. Steam chat has always been a bit of a pain to use and Valve has taken action and launched their new Steam chat.
The new chat system feels very much like Discord. Embedded media, sorted rooms and a much more streamlined overall experience are all part of the new version. Users who want to try it out have to opt-in to the Beta version first though. Details on how to do that are available on the chat update post.
It’s not all good news though. Valve have also announced a plan that will see the retirement of the entire platform for some users. Affected users are those that are still using either Windows Vista or XP. For clarity, those two groups account for less than 0.23% of all Steam users, according to the Hardware Survey. So while it’s a bit annoying, it’s not catastrophic. On January 1, 2019 these platforms will no longer work with Steam.
“Starting on January 1 2019, Steam will officially stop supporting the Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems. This means that after that date the Steam Client will no longer run on those versions of Windows,” Valve announced today. “In order to continue running Steam and any games or other products purchased through Steam, users will need to update to a more recent version of Windows.”
And in case you’re wondering why these platforms are being retired, the answer is age. These platforms have been around for years, and are no longer supported by most companies. This loss of support covers newer versions of Google Chrome. The reason this affects Steam is because the entire Steam client is built around a core of that web browser. Newer updates to Steam will also rely on embedded Windows features that aren’t part of these two older versions.
Even though Valve have other more serious issues, like the glut of neo-nazis on the platform, and the complete abandonment of quality standards, it’s totally clear that they have their priorities in order. Or not, you know whatever.
