One of the most-used analysis tools for Steam may soon become obsolete by a similar tool designed by Valve itself — and the original creator doesn’t seem to mind in the least.
The tool in question is the popular independent site Steam Spy, which uses API to track the sales and ownership of titles on the digital platform. Its owner noted that a recent talk by Valve indicated that the company was working on its own version.
“They don’t think it’s accurate enough,” he said, “so they’ll create something better than Steam Spy on their own. Really looking forward to it, to be honest. The reason I opened Steam Spy to everyone was to let smaller developers make informed decisions based on data and to remove some of the information asymmetry that is so pervasive in our industry. Naturally, I am excited by Valve’s decision to offer a better version of Steam Spy.”
Valve thinks that this is an important action to take: “The only way we make money is if you make good decisions in bringing the right games to the platform, and finding your audience. So, yes, we are very much working on new tools and new ways of getting data out of Steam, and we hope that data can be more accurate and more useful than what Steam Spy previously offered you.”
