Valve, the firm behind the famous Steam gaming platform, has updated its traffic reporting features for game makers. The updates aim to prioritize player privacy while limiting reported details. Valve has stated that it does not collect or store info about users, such as age, gender, or race.
We should also point out Steam’s UTM systems. They help game studios assess whether their marketing campaigns work. In order to assess players after clicking on a UTM link, the system will now know more about players. It will share stats as a whole, without revealing any personal details. The UTM system will also know who is a new user and who has been playing on the platform for a long time.
Why is Steam working on its own reporting features?
Valve has said that it will no longer support Google Analytics on Steam. They came to this because of a mismatch between Google’s tracking system and Valve’s stance on user privacy. In order not to rely on third-party analytics tools and firms, Valve will focus on creating its own reporting features within Steam. This change will come into effect in July, matching Google’s move to Google Analytics 4.
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“As time has gone on we’ve come to realize that Google’s tracking solutions don’t align well with our approach to customer privacy.” Valve’s privacy-centric strategy requires some trade-offs to reduce the type of reporting. “In most cases, it simply means that any traffic sources that are below a threshold of volume will get reported as other.”
By making its internal reporting features better, Valve hopes to provide key info to game creators while ensuring they do not share any user data. Steam’s move to leave Google Analytics is logical. It is part of Steam’s goal to align what it’s doing with its privacy policy.
