Did you know that Steam wasn’t just for games? For the past few years you’ve also been able to watch short films and documentaries on the service, but since you probably didn’t know that and nobody watched them, Valve is getting rid of the Video section in the store.
I share this not for the news itself, which is meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but for the wording of Valve’s announcement, which is refreshingly brutal in an era of couched words and vague statements:
For the past few years, we have worked on expanding Steam beyond games and software by building a video platform that supports paid and free video content. In reviewing what Steam users actually watch, it became clear we should focus our effort on offering content that is either directly related to gaming or, is accessory content for games or software sold on Steam.
“We tried a thing, nobody cared, ah well”.
Gaming-related films will still be made available via the game’s actual store page, while “non-gaming videos will be retired and will no longer be available for purchase”, though any you might have picked up previously will still be available to re-download.