TECH NEWS – It looks like a significant proportion of Steam users could lose access to their game library.

Valve recently announced that players could potentially lose access to their Steam game library. That is, if they don’t update their operating system soon.

In a post, Valve announced that on 1 January 2024, “Steam will no longer officially support Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 operating systems”.

They said that the client would no longer run on computers and laptops running those operating systems once that date passed. Once this happens, players can no longer open the client. This means they cannot access, download and play their games.

It was explained that this is because the client relies on an “embedded version of Google Chrome”. However, since this embedded version of Google Chrome no longer works on older versions of Windows, the Steam client will not run either. Not only that, but future versions of the client will require various Windows features and security updates. These are only available for Windows 10 or later operating systems.

So, with support ending in 2024, Valve strongly encourages gamers to upgrade to the latest Windows operating system.

Various reasons are given for this. For example, that security updates and technical support for these operating systems has already ended. This leaves older computers and laptops vulnerable to malware. These can affect your gaming experience and potentially steal your Steam account credentials.

In summary, gamers with computers and laptops running Windows 7/8/8.1 operating systems will no longer be able to access the Steam client after 1 January 2024. They will need to upgrade to Windows 10 or later. After the upgrade, they can continue to enjoy their game library.

Source: Valve