Valve has announced that Steam Review Scores have been adjusted, making it so that a new score is calculated from reviews that are written in the same language as the user.
Games that have more than 2,000 public reviews and at least 200 in any one language will now show Review Scores for that language. Users whose Steam is in that language will automatically show that Review Score below the original Review Score.
If that sounds a bit confusing, here’s a screenshot to show it off a bit better:
These new language-specific Review Scores don’t take the place of the old Review Scores. According to Valve, this additional Review Score is meant to provide transparency and be as helpful as possible.
There’s also a language breakdown feature, giving players a way to see what’s going on in case there are any major disparities between the Review Scores.
These new language-based Steam Review Scores can be toggled on and off in the settings. However, because Valve is trying to help users with this change, it’s automatically toggled on.
It’s been 12 years since Steam User Reviews were first released, which led to Review Scores. Steam has grown quite a bit around the world since then.
Valve acknowledged that changes to Steam Review Scores can make users feel hesitant. However, it’s reiterated that these changes are meant to help users more than anything else, and the large threshold for a language-specific Review Score is also meant to ensure no problems crop up.
For more news on recent changes that Valve has made to Steam, check out the May update that expanded the top releases charts and the June update that added an in-game performance monitor.
