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Steam finally gets easier to grab free stuff

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It seems Valve has made it easier to claim free stuff on the Steam store, so you no longer need to quickly try to install something free and back out of it to claim it. Seems this happened somewhat silently but it's obvious enough that no one is going to miss it.

On Steam store pages, there's now an Add to Library button which works for anything that is currently free on Steam.

Such a small but needed change. Especially useful when there's a game that has a 100% discount for a limited time, you can now just easily claim it so you don't miss it. Seeing games on a free giveaway happens quite often too, and having to do a pretend install to claim it was quite a nuisance, while not always the case often you would need to do that. This is especially useful for free DLC, as you would pretty much always need to go through it. Now it's just a one click — nice.

Quite happy to see this change finally happen!

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Misc, Steam, Valve
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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15 comments
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mt Aug 16, 2022
Online Game Selling Store does improvements to Offline mode and Free Game Claiming in one swoop.
What's going on here?!? :P
Liam Dawe Aug 16, 2022
Quoting: mtOnline Game Selling Store does improvements to Offline mode and Free Game Claiming in one swoop.
What's going on here?!? :P
It's as if they care about their customers :O
pb 10 years Aug 16, 2022
You can also claim all or selected free games and/or dlc here: https://steamdb.info/freepackages/
Eike Aug 16, 2022
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If you want them to count for Linux, you might want to take some care though. I always install and start up the games I grabbed. (I don't do that often anyway, though.)


Last edited by Eike on 16 August 2022 at 9:22 am UTC
dpanter Aug 16, 2022
Using the button to add Windows-only demos to your library when you don't have 'Enable Steam Play for all other titles' checked in the Steam client settings also works properly. No more "unsupported platform" sadface message!
dpanter Aug 16, 2022
Quoting: EikeIf you want them to count for Linux
If you use the Linux native client, it counts automatically as Linux (unless you play the game more time on another platform within the first 2 weeks).
Trias Aug 16, 2022
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Quoting: dpanter
Quoting: EikeIf you want them to count for Linux
If you use the Linux native client, it counts automatically as Linux (unless you play the game more time on another platform within the first 2 weeks).

Well, it should count as Linux, I think, but then even Liam recommendation (on your link) ends with "If you want to ensure developers see a Linux sale: play it only on Linux in the first two weeks, don't buy it and leave it." That "don't buy it and leave it." confuses me a bit and so I always install and launch games for a few minutes just in case...
BlackBloodRum Aug 16, 2022
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Nice!

Quoting: mtOnline Game Selling Store does improvements to Offline mode and Free Game Claiming in one swoop.
What's going on here?!? :P
2 things

1) Steam deck, they want it to be successful which means providing a good service for deck owners.
2) They have more competition now in the form of Prime gaming, Epic games store etc, so if they want people to continue to use their services instead of switching, they have to stand out from the others as better.
gradyvuckovic Aug 16, 2022
Quoting: Liam Dawe
Quoting: mtOnline Game Selling Store does improvements to Offline mode and Free Game Claiming in one swoop.
What's going on here?!? :P
It's as if they care about their customers :O
Is that even legal??
StoneColdSpider Aug 16, 2022
Our Lord Gaben works in mysterious ways
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