Steam reportedly adding way to hide games from other users
ValveA dataminer and founder of SteamDB says Valve plans to give Steam users the option to mark games as private, hiding them from other users on the platform.
Steam may be getting a long-requested privacy feature soon.
According to dataminer and SteamDB creator Pavel Djundik, Valve appears to be planning to implement a new option that would give users even more control over what games their friends can see. This would allow users to hide specific games from others on the platform.
The feature is, to many, long overdue, and it seems Steam users know exactly how they plan to use it.
“Mark as Private” would allow Steam users to hide selected games from friends
Steam’s privacy options have historically been pretty limited. You do have the option to set your account or certain features to either Public, Friends only, or Private, but this impacts all games in your library.
While there is a “Hide” option, that’s specifically for clearing games from your own library, not hiding them from others.
As Djundik has found, that may change soon with a planned “Mark as Private” option.
This would allow you to hide specific games from prying eyes while still enjoying them privately.
Of course, some Steam users know exactly what kinds of games they’ll be using this for.
Many comments on Djundik’s tweet come from those who have been deterred from adult anime games and other potentially embarrassing content by the fact that their friends can see what’s in their library, even if they never actually open it.
Those who may feel sensitive about their, say, Counter-Strike 2 or Destiny 2 playtime will also be able to use the feature to hide just how many hours they’ve spent in those games.
Mark as Private could also help developers, particularly indie devs.
“i can finally playtest Project Wingman 3 without leaking it,” joked Project Wingman writer and producer Matthew Nguyen.