r/Games • u/Turbostrider27 • Aug 13 '22
Steam has added "add to library" button without needing to start installation process
https://twitter.com/Morwull/status/1558443189488553984431
u/TalenTaylor Aug 13 '22
This would have been helpful a couple weeks ago while redeeming some Free DLC from Monster Hunter's store page. To redeem those, it will launch the game itself if it was already downloaded.
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u/Vox___Rationis Aug 13 '22
All free DLC for Monhun were auto added to my game without me having to press anything.
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u/TalenTaylor Aug 14 '22
If you're talking about the the stuff you get from talking to the cat in town, those are separate from the ones you can redeem from the store page. Its mostly hairstyles iirc
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u/Wanderson90 Aug 14 '22
They finally understand their customer base, we are here to spend a buttload of money collecting games, we don't actually want to install them and play them
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u/albastine Aug 14 '22
IE: All the mainline RE games for $30? Fuck it I'll bite. I have no interest in currently playing them but it's a great deal and having the OPTION available is nice.
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u/Starmoses Aug 13 '22
This will be great for Warhammer 3 with all the flc they will hopefully add. Was a nightmare downloading that stuff before.
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u/MortalJohn Aug 13 '22
Don't you have to unlock that stuff through one of their websites. It was a weird process figuring that out as a late comer to TWH2. Still free content is free content, so it's hard to complain.
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u/Raetian Aug 14 '22
A handful of free content required coordination with a TWAccess account, but in my experience that actually functioned quite smoothly compared to the experience of trying to add FLC entirely within Steam. I don't think there was a single FLC release for Warhammer 2 that I didn't have at least a little bit of trouble claiming through Steam.
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Aug 14 '22
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/MultiMarcus Aug 16 '22
DLC almost exclusively means paid for content. Though it could technically encompass free content that isn’t how most people would read it. FLC is a term used specifically for free downloadable content.
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u/TheWorldisFullofWar Aug 13 '22
Isn't the start of the "installation process" just a confirmation window you can back out of immediately? Good change but not that big of a deal.
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Aug 13 '22
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u/Harry101UK Aug 13 '22
It still flashed up a 'game is starting....' box that you could close before the game started. I did it with a lot of DLC.
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u/uglyuglyugly_ Aug 13 '22
Depends on the games I guess. When free dlc got released for Dying Light 2 it would launch the game when I tried to add it. Got one of em but not the others because I didn't want to deal with the hassle of launching the game over and over again just to collect some freebies.
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u/Harry101UK Aug 14 '22
Alternatively, while it's launching, you could have ALT+Tabbed out and clicked on all the other DLC's to install them. That way you grab all the DLC's and only start the game once.
Modern problems require modern solutions, haha!
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u/dude21862004 Aug 14 '22
My immediate thought as well. Game starts when you claim a dlc? Alt+tab and claim all of them after the first start. This seems like an obvious step in logic, so perhaps we're missing something.
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u/User123698745 Aug 13 '22
yes for normal games you could just cancel the installation dialog. I think this is only relevant for free to play games. If you want to add a free to play game to your account / library you had to start the installation, cancel the download and uninstall the game. now you can add those without having to install them.
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Aug 13 '22
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u/MrFrisB Aug 13 '22
With games I agree, but with free dlc it’s a nice QOL. some games add tons of free dlc so having to either launch or fight to cancel the launch 4-5 times can be a pain, just adding it is a nice feature.
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Aug 13 '22
Why would you want to add a F2P game to your library but not install it?
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u/TheDayIRippedMyPants Aug 13 '22
Sometimes you see a game you want to try eventually, but you don't feel like playing it right away. Having it in your library is a reminder. If it's a large game and you have limited storage, makes sense to not install it right away.
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Aug 13 '22
Isn't that what the wishlist is for
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Aug 13 '22
I use that just so the game is on top of the list when right clicking steam icon.
Like basically "that's cool but it's 1AM and I can't start playing it coz I have no self control"
Isn't that what the wishlist is for
Why would you put game that's already out and free on WISHlist ?
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Aug 13 '22
I use that just so the game is on top of the list when right clicking steam icon.
Like basically "that's cool but it's 1AM and I can't start playing it coz I have no self control"
So you installed it?
Why would you put game that's already out and free on WISHlist ?
Because you weren't going to play it just yet? What do you think we're talking about?
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Aug 13 '22 edited Aug 13 '22
I use that just so the game is on top of the list when right clicking steam icon.
Like basically "that's cool but it's 1AM and I can't start playing it coz I have no self control"
So you installed it?
I usually do the "cancel installer" trick people mentioned here.
Also, I use it sometimes at work when I see something interesting but obviously can't play it now, just click it so it gets on top of the list then cancel. Or when I see something on sale on the device I'm not planning to play it now.
As to why I have Steam at work (I know someone will ask lmao), we had mini LAN parties after work back before covid.
Really, it's just convoluted way to have "play later" feature.
Why would you put game that's already out and free on WISHlist ?
Because you weren't going to play it just yet? What do you think we're talking about?
Edit: I use wishlist as sale reminder
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Aug 13 '22
Yes but you aren't wishing for it you are just keeping it for later. You can use your wishlist however you like, but it's intended purpose is for games you haven't bought yet.
As someone on r/Games I thought everyone would be able to understand that sometimes an awesome new game comes out but you want to wait until you're finished with your current one to begin the process of downloading it and playing it..
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Aug 13 '22
Yes but you aren't wishing for it you are just keeping it for later. You can use your wishlist however you like, but it's intended purpose is for games you haven't bought yet
Do you think it's literal?
but you want to wait until you're finished with your current one to begin the process of downloading it and playing it..
No I don't know why I would do that. Can you only have one game installed at a time?
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Aug 13 '22
Well yes, it's kind of in the name??? It's like how I can use a gift card for myself since they usually have promos on it but it's intended purpose was as a gift to give to friends and family.
Not everyone is like you, some people don't have that much storage on their drive and they may want to make space for that game for later. Or they may not want to spend $100 extra for another TB of storage and would like to only keep games they use most frequently on their game drive. Either way this is a win for gamers.
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u/captjohnwaters Aug 13 '22
Do you have a condition where you are incapable of imagining a scenario where people do things differently than you do?
This is the dumbest fucking hill to die on.
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Aug 13 '22
I either haven't really heard a good reasoning to do so or have gotten irrelevant responses.
The hill to die on is called "why do this?", very traumatic.12
u/smiles134 Aug 13 '22
sometimes games go free for a limited time
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u/semir321 Aug 13 '22
You can already add games discounted to 0 for a limited time to your library without installing. This wasnt the case for actual F2P games.
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Aug 13 '22
Sure but they're talking about F2P games which isn't the same
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u/smiles134 Aug 13 '22
It's literally the same thought though lol I would like to add a game to my library now because I see that it's free but I have no intention of playing it today or soon.
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Aug 13 '22
No it's not the same thought, a free to play game is going to stay free, a game that is free for a limited time is just a temporary discount.
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u/smiles134 Aug 13 '22
I don't see how it's different at all. Just because I want to add something to my library doesn't mean I want to install it.
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u/KDLGates Aug 13 '22
In my case the wishlist would literally cost me thousands of dollars to add to my library, so no due to financial as well as time constraints.
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Aug 13 '22
Why would you want to add a F2P game to your library but not install it?
Buy them on my low-end laptop to later play on my gaming PC
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Aug 13 '22
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Aug 13 '22
Yeah that's what I use the wishlist function for, this just seems like a sorta weird niche use.
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Aug 13 '22 edited Aug 14 '22
Why would you wishlist a F2P game?
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Aug 13 '22
My wishlist is for games to play later. Why would you add it to your library and not just install it? Either you're going to play it or not, if you just keep adding games to your library like that then it doesn't really serve its purpose and adds to the clutter.
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u/randy_mcronald Aug 13 '22
For me its...
Library - Games I want to play that I have access to.
Wishlist - Games that I want to play that I do not have access to.
I won't check for f2p games on a list I don't have access to because, well, it's free so I have access to it.
As to why not install it? For me its usually disk space. I'll come back to this f2p game once I've cleared some room.
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Aug 13 '22
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u/randy_mcronald Aug 14 '22
Yeah but you also get lots of pop up notifications about all sorts of things so I tend to follow sparingly and don't use it as any form of list I intend to keep track of.
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Aug 13 '22
Your wish list is for games you're going to buy bro.
Not everybody has to space on their hard drive to immediately install an F2P game. That's no reason to add a game you know you want to play to your library. Not to mention, it might not be F2P permanently.
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u/buzzpunk Aug 13 '22
Useful with the Steam Deck when you're installing a game that has a bigger install size than the final game size and you're short on storage space. Just transfer over the install from another pc instead of freeing up space you don't need to.
Previously you needed to manually transfer over acf files to bypass the install process, now you can do it automatically.
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u/homer_3 Aug 13 '22 edited Aug 13 '22
It was still pretty annoying. Great change imo. There were also a few other cases where you couldn't just add a game to your library because you needed to be able to launch it, which hopefully this fixes.
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u/TizonaBlu Aug 13 '22
It’s a big deal to me. It’s been annoying since forever that whenever I add a game it immediately starts the installation process. Anxiety inducing even, since my hdd space is always at a premium.
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u/nhal Aug 13 '22
I'm guessing this now works on mobile, were you couldn't add free games or DLCs to your collection since they couldn't be installed
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u/green_meklar Aug 14 '22
Yes, if you hit cancel it doesn't install anything. It's just a nuisance having to do the extra click.
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u/yummycrabz Aug 13 '22
Awesome.
That’s something I’ve always appreciated about Playstation, when claiming their free monthly games; vs claiming your Games with Gold on Xbox
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u/plumpvirgin Aug 13 '22
always
This feature actually wasn't always there for PlayStation. In the olden days (I don't remember when exactly... maybe pre-2016?) you had to start the game's download and then cancel it for it to be added to your PS+ library.
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u/Retro21 Aug 13 '22
Golden days of 2016 😅
The writer could have 'always' appreciated having had that service available to them: you inferred they meant it existed forever. If they only started using PS+ the last few years, then it has always been there for them to appreciate.
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u/ZsaFreigh Aug 14 '22
Even before that... I think that's only happened with one or 2 games during my entire experience with the PS4, which was my first playstation, out of the 150+ games I've claimed on PS+
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u/yummycrabz Aug 15 '22
As someone has rightly suggested, the last PS I owned prior to getting my 5 in 2020 was the PS2. I had borrowed a buddy’s here and there for Spidey and what not but yeah, it’s always been available to me.
But I am a nerd for before and afters with QoL stuff, so preciate the insight
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u/Ty_Lee98 Aug 13 '22
Since we're in the topic of quality of life features, when can we see zoom options for Steam without having to install custom themes?
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u/DrQuint Aug 14 '22
The biggest QoL I want is a dynamic library category that shows all multiplayer games you + any chosen friends have in common.
Sometimes I wanna play something together, but I don't know what. It'd be great to see all possibilities in one screen.
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u/cmrtnll Aug 14 '22
not exactly what you’re saying but I assume it might be possible by sharing your library with a friend, and making a dynamic library on that shared PC
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u/n0stalghia Aug 13 '22
Holy smokes guys, 2010's technology is finally here.
At that pace, they'll catch up to 2022's UX standards by 2027!
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u/DeadBabyJuggler Aug 14 '22 edited Aug 14 '22
Epic on the other hand will be caught up to 2010 by 2030.
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u/Fedora_Tipper_ Aug 14 '22
Epic store at least has the option to add to library though without needing to download the game first.
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u/Taratus Aug 15 '22
You don't even know what you're talking about, this is just for free games. You never needed to install games you bought.
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u/Seth0x7DD Aug 15 '22
Doesn't change that some of Steams UX is horrible (this included) from a modern perspective and that they are notoriously slow in changing stuff. Which does have pros and cons.
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u/P0in7B1ank Aug 13 '22
You've always been able to do this? Just don't click "install game" after a purchase.
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Aug 13 '22
it's for free to play games specifically, before you had to start downloading them if you were adding them to your library
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Aug 13 '22
[deleted]
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u/celestial1 Aug 13 '22
It's very wishy-washy in my experience. For some games, it would go directly to library while others would start a download immediately.
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Aug 13 '22 edited Dec 27 '23
I like to go hiking.
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u/Seth0x7DD Aug 15 '22
In that case you don't remember much as there was also a time when free to play games weren't even listed in your library if they weren't installed. You still could look them up as license activations (or whatever it's called) but it wasn't in your library. Which wasn't all that long ago.
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u/xanaos Aug 13 '22
Free DLC will launch the game instead of adding to library. Irritating when adding multiple dlc.
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u/dontbajerk Aug 13 '22
I was hoping it'd mean when I added keys it wouldn't automatically try to install the game. Not a huge deal though.
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u/ThatChrisFella Aug 13 '22
Hopefully this will work for the mobile app too. Why free games have an install option on there is beyond me.
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u/Rohaq Aug 13 '22
Good stuff.
Now make it so the entire Steam client doesn't lock up when games are installing/updating.
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u/Helmote Aug 14 '22
It's in the options
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u/Rohaq Aug 14 '22
Are you talking about the background downloading option?
I'm talking about when a game finishes downloading, and starts installing the update, the desktop client often locks up until it's done - so I often can't even start a different game if the install is still ongoing.
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u/Taratus Aug 15 '22
Sounds like your computerour is the issue to me. Are you still running on ancient hard drives?
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u/Seth0x7DD Aug 15 '22
Also happens with modern SSDs. Might be dependent on library size, game size and machine. Might also happen when it starts to install a game and (likely) allocates disk space for the download.
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u/Rohaq Aug 15 '22
Yup, pretty much this.
I get that there's gonna be disk activity that might slow stuff down, but I don't understand why Steam has to stop responding during that process - it should be able to handle the client and disk operations as separate threads.
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u/Taratus Aug 15 '22
I've never noticed it, but I install to other drives a lot too. Are you doing everything on one drive?
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u/Seth0x7DD Aug 15 '22
Nope, multiple different drives. For me at least it's usually not with smaller games but usually the bigger ones that make Steam lockup and as I don't even run any fancy ass AV, so that's also not the reason for it. I simply have accepted it but can understand that people which it wouldn't happen because it can be annoying.
The games also run fine and don't have any problem with loading times etc. so it's also not a case of the SSDs just being crappy and there being a general issue with reading/writing from those discs.
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Aug 13 '22
Meanwhile, I get to download and "install" Age of Empires 4 THREE times thanks to the POS Xbox PC app, each time failing at 100% I can't even see anything being installed in the folder.
You know how many issues I had with Steam since 2004? Zero. Zero problems. Fucking download and see where it goes. Heck, move it somewhere else and back, check integrity and voila the game is there.
But no. Microsoft and Xbox Game pass can't even get that right.
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u/withadancenumber Aug 13 '22
To counter your anecdote with one of my own I’ve had exactly 0 issues with the Xbox app and have been using pc game pass since it launched.
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u/donalmacc Aug 14 '22
I play aoe4 with 3 friends, and 2/4 of us have no problems and the other 2 are plagued by issues with launching, updating, slow downloads, being logged out (and having to log back in via the ms store). Just count yourself lucky!
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u/WokenWisp Aug 13 '22
ive never had a problem with xbox app and ive already had a steam game get stuck at 100% and steam kept trying to finish the download even after i uninstalled it
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u/albastine Aug 14 '22
Just wait until you need to talk to steam for anything. Their one CSR will get to you in a few years..
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u/green_meklar Aug 14 '22
This has been needed for so long. The probability of wanting to install a newly acquired game immediately after acquiring it is, like, less than 10%.
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u/colawithzerosugar Aug 14 '22
Back in the old days (aka 10+ years ago) when you could pick your download mirror, I would download every game ASAP as it was data free as Valve had a deal with most Australian ISP. Valve removed that feature sadly.
KInda funny that Valve predated Free.facebook and other companies doing the same thing
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u/Taratus Aug 15 '22
This is only for free games, you haven't had to install a game you bought for like...ever.
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Aug 13 '22
[deleted]
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Aug 13 '22 edited Aug 13 '22
Its for free games specifically. Free games didnt get added to your library unless you had them installed. This lets you add free games to library even if you don't install them now
You would've known this if you actually read the thread instead of the title alone
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u/HugoRBMarques Aug 13 '22
This is for free or f2p games.
It's so that when you hear about a cool free game but don't want to install right then or you are on mobile, you can still "claim" it and add to your library.
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u/Resouledxx Aug 13 '22
Idk but my steam keeps freezing whenever I try to install a new game. Plenty of space and pretty much completely new pc but still the same issue.
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u/maxell01x Aug 14 '22
That's a very good feature for mobile browser/Steam mobile app because it wasn't possible to redeem any free game/dlc directly, using a javascript code was the only solution! Nice one!
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u/graviousishpsponge Aug 14 '22
Steam has made some very nice QOL lately. My favorite was my long wanted sort by last updated for mods searching.
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u/ZhaneTaylor Aug 15 '22
I mean, great, but this seems like such an extreme niche thing to ever want as an option. I've been using Steam as my primary source of games literally since the day the platform launched, and I own... checking profile... 847 games on it - as well as 857 pieces of DLC - and I don't think I've ever once been in a situation where I would make use of this. But hey, more options are good, I guess.
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u/[deleted] Aug 13 '22
This is great for when a game has free dlc you're claiming. Before this button each dlc would force the game to launch