In order to avoid losing access to the popular gaming service at the beginning of next year, Valve is advising all PC users of Steam to update their operating systems.
It is safe to say that the ease with which Steam is so accessible all across a wide range of PC platforms is one of its best features.
And although some people may still be able to use Steam right now even if their PC hasn’t received many updates in the last 5 years, regardless of the reason, that won’t be the case for very long, as we’ve just established.
Valve announced that it would shortly stop supporting the platform for PCs running Windows 7, Windows 8, and 8.1 in a lengthy new post released on the Steam Support website.
On January 1st of 2024, this modification is expected to take effect.
Now, PCs who still use these outdated versions of Windows won’t be able to play games that are purchased through Steam or download any more games from its marketplace so make sure to keep that in mind and update your system in the near future if this is sure to affect you.
Valve addressed the reason behind this decision, saying that “This change is required as core features in Steam rely on an embedded version of Google Chrome, which no longer works on older versions of Windows. In addition, any future versions of Steam will need Windows feature and security updates present only in Windows 10 and above. Although support will not end until 2024, we strongly encourage all Windows 7/8/8.1 users to update sooner rather than later.”
Overall, this isn’t a great shock, especially considering that Microsoft hasn’t even actively supported Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 in quite a while.
While Windows 8 reached its conclusion in 2016, Windows 7 had its last update way back in 2011.
Even though Valve could have discontinued supporting the majority of these operating systems years ago without having a significant negative impact on its user base, they’ve continued to support them until now, the end finally coming along with the end of 2023.