Steam loyalty rewards program leaked by data miners

Data miner Pavel Djundik has discovered code that indicates Valve is developing a new Steam rewards program. Djundik is a full-stack developer known for working on Steam Status and Steam Database. While these projects have no official affiliation with Valve, they’re known for consistently leaking information on the company’s plans.

Since its launch in 2003, Steam has become one of the largest digital distribution services in the world. Until now, users have unlocked “Steam Levels,” showing off their badges and participation in Steam events. However, profile levels don’t reward gamers for being part of the community in any real way.

Hints of a reward program

Djundik has now uncovered Steam code that suggests Valve is developing a “Loyalty Reward” program. He also provided three links to GitHub repositories featuring the code. It shows several functions that refer to Loyalty Rewards.

Valve is working on loyalty awards/rewards. It has a point system, and a system to add reactions to user reviews.

Also includes reward items, redeeming points for badge levels, and possiblity game discounts.

— Pavel Djundik (@thexpaw) May 9, 2020

Moreover, one of these repositories refers to “Steam Rewards” and a “Point Balance” designed to show up in the user’s cart. With this in mind, Djundik suggests Valve may plan to consolidate “sale mechanics into a proper system.” Additionally, he theorizes users will have the ability to redeem points to level up, earn reward items, and garner discounts.

New reactions for user reviews

Following the discovery of Valve’s future reward program, Djundik also found evidence of a new “react system”. In his initial tweet, Djundik suggests Steam users will have the ability to add these new reactions to reviews. He went on to unveil six reaction images that are thought to be used for the review system.

Steam review reaction images, which are related to the loyalty awards. pic.twitter.com/j8iHPhmK5o

— Pavel Djundik (@thexpaw) May 13, 2020

The six emotes are reminiscent of Facebook reactions. They should prove a quirky way of adding more personality to the Steam store. It would certainly prove more expressive than Steam’s current thumbs up/thumbs down review reactions.

As of yet, there’s been no confirmation from Valve regarding these rumors. Similarly, Djundik was unable to find release dates for either the new reactions or the reward program. As such, we’ll have to wait for official announcements to know if and when these are actually coming.