Steam's color theme change over the years

[Bullet Barrage Spy]

There's something that's been nagging me for ages. Why did Steam change it's coloring theme from it's nice, abeit unique greens to this really dumb blue-gray coloring? Is there a specific reason? What do you think about it? Do you like the new theme or do you wish for the old theme to return?

Below, I've linked to some guy's (most likely a recreation) 2007 Steam layout, showcasing the green I'm talking about. The Source SDK, and all pre-Orange Box game engine(and possibly even a little prior) show the old greens over the blue-grays.


Original color

[print(name)]

Why did Steam change it's coloring theme from it's nice, abeit unique greens to this really dumb blue-gray coloring? Is there a specific reason?

Because it was horrendous.

[Jerry]

I'm a couple of years late to still meet the green version. My first association with the version, you linked, would be something about military or paramilitary colouring.
Maybe the switch to a different colour can be seen as symbol for a step out of the shooter niche towards a broader selection of games on the platform.

Perhaps I would be somewhat nostalgic, if I still had experienced it for some time, but just seeing it now, it does not strike me as more thrilling than what we got today.

[Phantom]

I personally like the blue-gray colors implemented; green isn't my thing.

[Bullet Barrage Spy]

In my opinion, the blue-gray kinda looks like something for old men(which some people that I work with speculated that it looks a lot like Steam's color choice grew up with Gabe Newell and who is apparently 55 years old,) while the green, like Jerry said, is much like military/paramilitary coloring, which fits the style of most of Valve's games, which are shooters.

That said, I can probably find a few reasons for the change. First off, the green was harsh on the eyes. The problem with that is that a lot of older Steam/Valve applications that use Steam based functions(or something similar) all retain their old green coloring, which seems mighty off considering the fact that almost all other applications received a gray coloring for those functions. Probably the biggest red flag that trips me up on this theory is the Source SDK, something that has been updated over the years quiet a lot, but the green coloring has never been removed. And none of that makes my eyes hurt.

Maybe it's it's because it did look ugly, but then again, this looks ugly today[i.imgur.com], but at the time, it looked really nice. Maybe something like that happened. Whatever the case, I actually prefer the oldest layout of Steam I could find over this.

So nice and clean, don't you think?[ia801604.us.archive.org]

[Jerry]

Originally posted by Bullet Barrage Spy:

Whatever the case, I actually prefer the oldest layout of Steam I could find over this.

So nice and clean, don't you think?[ia801604.us.archive.org]

I admit, that's really charming. Might get a bit difficult with all the newer features (just displaying the shop page in this style certainly would be a challenge), but if there was a skin in Windows 3.11 outfit... I might be tempted.

[Bullet Barrage Spy]

Originally posted by Jerry:

Originally posted by Bullet Barrage Spy:

Whatever the case, I actually prefer the oldest layout of Steam I could find over this.

So nice and clean, don't you think?[ia801604.us.archive.org]

I admit, that's really charming. Might get a bit difficult with all the newer features (just displaying the shop page in this style certainly would be a challenge), but if there was a skin in Windows 3.11 outfit... I might be tempted.

I could figure out a few ways that store could work. For starters, you could have a few buttons on the main page which could divide the store into a few sections, and then have a few games in a grid form, and clicking on a game in one of the sections could output what similiar to what we have for a games page. That said, yeah, I could see the issues.

[Kobold]

It would be nice is Valve rebuilt steam to use some kind of CSS controls that way people could easily customize the way Steam looks with some simple CSS.

[Garou]

I'd prefer a custom interface so anyone can pick their favorite colors

[Bullet Barrage Spy]

Total rewrite of the website in that case.

[GRIDLINES]

Remember when the background was my avatar instead of this blue?

[Tipoff Giggots]

Originally posted by Bullet Barrage Spy:

Why did Steam change it's coloring theme from it's nice, abeit unique greens to this really dumb blue-gray coloring? Is there a specific reason? What do you think about it? Do you like the new theme or do you wish for the old theme to return?

They changed it because it was ugly, really. Nothing about that was nice. The new blue/gray looks streamline and beautiful, and I hope what they do next is better, like all blues or something, idk. I love the new, hate the old. This is basically like: would you rather have windows 98 or windows 10 look?

[Tipoff Giggots]

Originally posted by Bullet Barrage Spy:

In my opinion, the blue-gray kinda looks like something for old men(which some people that I work with speculated that it looks a lot like Steam's color choice grew up with Gabe Newell and who is apparently 55 years old,) while the green, like Jerry said, is much like military/paramilitary coloring, which fits the style of most of Valve's games, which are shooters.

Maybe it's it's because it did look ugly, but then again, this looks ugly today[i.imgur.com], but at the time, it looked really nice. Maybe something like that happened. Whatever the case, I actually prefer the oldest layout of Steam I could find over this.

So nice and clean, don't you think?[ia801604.us.archive.org]

Not all games on Steam are shooters, there is a huge variety and shooters is one catagory. Green is hard on the eyes sometimes, especially if you use steam constantly, while blue is nice and soft, easy.

That blue in your first link is nowhere near what Steam has. That blue is ugly, yes, but Steam's blue is much better than that and green. And that other link is not nice and clean, it looks old and horrendous.

[Tipoff Giggots]

If you REALLY want you can download an old Steam skin, I have never tried it but it changes the look of Steam. Hope this helps! :)

[Jerry]

Originally posted by ☠CaptainFearless:

This is basically like: would you rather have windows 98 or windows 10 look?

Now you're confusing me... which of these would be the right answer? Personally I'd go for 98 (except for the crashes, if I got to choose).


P.S.: As shooters are one of the two genres, I really can't stand (the other is flying simulations), my comparisson above was not really meant as a compliment.

[Tipoff Giggots]

Originally posted by Jerry:

Originally posted by ☠CaptainFearless:

This is basically like: would you rather have windows 98 or windows 10 look?

Now you're confusing me... which of these would be the right answer? Personally I'd go for 98 (except for the crashes, if I got to choose).


P.S.: As shooters are one of the few genres, I really can't stand (beside flying simulations), my comparisson above was not really meant as a compliment.

Windows 10 just looks more modern, but if you like windows 98, you are you. :)

Also thank god, yea shooters get annoying.