Valve just gave Steam a much-needed glow-up, with a client update finally adding users' long-requested features like UI scaling and more: "Thank you, Lord Gaben"

(Image credit: Valve)

Steam first launched in 2003 as software that would automatically update games from Valve, but since then, it's grown as a bustling platform and storefront for all titles – and this growth means regular updates, like its latest, which adds hotly anticipated accessibility features.

As someone who can hardly see (yes, even with prescribed glasses on), I love a good scaling option for UI and other text – it makes navigating anything from games to platforms easier. Up until this point, however, I haven't found Steam to be the greatest at implementing such choices for those of us who aren't blessed with the best vision… but that's all about to change, thanks to Valve's new Steam client update.

The company outlines as much in its announcement regarding the update, highlighting new accessibility features – the ones I and fellow visually impaired folks have been waiting for – from a high contrast mode to reduced motion settings and, last but certainly not least, "UI scale controls." Valve's changes also include various "accessibility annotations to many UI components," making for a more comfortable user experience all around.

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There are plenty of other tweaks arriving with today's update, too, many of which address other scaling, text-related, and visual issues. Another one that I'm personally excited to play around with is a "customization tab" Valve is adding to game properties, which "allows users to view and set custom artwork for the game and set a custom sort title that will be used instead of the actual title when sorting games in the library."

I'm not the only one thrilled about the new Steam client update, either. Comments underneath the announcement from Valve see users praising it for making "things more legible and easier to navigate," and a separate Reddit thread covering the changes shows similar reactions. As one person writes, "Holy Jesus, the UI scale is a mega W." Another simply exclaims, "Thank you, Lord Gaben" – a sentiment I can certainly share.

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After spending years with her head in various fantastical realms' clouds, Anna studied English Literature and then Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh, going on to specialize in narrative design and video game journalism as a writer. She has written for various publications since her postgraduate studies, including Dexerto, Fanbyte, GameSpot, IGN, PCGamesN, and more. When she's not frantically trying to form words into coherent sentences, she's probably daydreaming about becoming a fairy druid and befriending every animal or she's spending a thousand (more) hours traversing the Underdark in Baldur's Gate 3. If you spot her away from her PC, you'll always find Anna with a fantasy book, a handheld video game console of some sort, and a Tamagotchi or two on hand.