Valve has added yet another one of its Steam Labs experiments into Steam proper. The latest new feature to move from beta to the live product is “Experiment 008: Play Next.” This tool suggests games from your library using your habits and machine learning. Maybe now you can finally get through that pile of shame. (Spoiler: You won’t.)
You can find Play Next in Steam right now as long as you update to the latest version. Once you do, go to your library. Play Next should show up as one of your game shelves. This should help anyone with a large library of games dig through their backlog. And since tons of people are always buying more games than they play during every Steam sale, a lot of folks should find this useful.
If you don’t want machines telling you what to play, you can remove Play Next and replace it with something else. Or you can move it up and down relative to your other shelves.
But does it work? Valve claims it’s using AI to make recommendations. But does that mean it knows the games you’ll enjoy the most? Well, it certainly seems to get me. My top recommendations are Superhot VR, Cuphead, Gorn, and Hollow Knight. Now, I’ve already played Superhot VR and Cuphead on other platforms, but Steam is absolutely right in assuming that I would enjoy those games. I’ve played them, and I do enjoy them.
I’m also sure that I would dig Gorn and Hollow Knight. Both of those games were already on top of my mental pile of shame. But now Steam can remind me of this as well as my brain.