Please add a translate feature to discussions

All Discussions > Steam Forums > Suggestions / Ideas > Topic Details

Character Name 23 hours ago

With the large influx of Chinese players, and Chinese developers, we often get discussions that are now mixed English and Chinese. Chrome/Chromium can translate these on the fly, why not add that feature to discussions? That way we can all participate in the discussions together.

< >

Showing 1-11 of 11 comments

eram 22 hours ago

Use a web browser

Character Name 22 hours ago

Originally posted by eram:
Use a web browser

Yes, that is possible, but requires the additional annoyance of copying a link, and re-logging in, which may require 2FA as well. The discussions are just a web page in the steam client anyway, so this should be a minor change.

pckirk 22 hours ago

Translations get expensive, so no it will not happen.

eram 21 hours ago

Originally posted by Character Name:
Originally posted by eram:
Use a web browser

Yes, that is possible, but requires the additional annoyance of copying a link, and re-logging in, which may require 2FA as well. The discussions are just a web page in the steam client anyway, so this should be a minor change.

its a big expense for translation services so you log into steam via a web browser, you dont need to copy a link or anything like that.

AmsterdamHeavy 21 hours ago

I have experience with translation services. Its been a while but 7-8 years ago the cost for unlimited pages was $1 per user per month.

If Valve developed their own, it would be cheaper obviously.

A "user" would be defined as any logged in Steam user for the month. Youre talking millions of dollars per month, even with steep volume discounting because of the sheer number of monthly users Steam has.

No matter what solution Valve were to come up with, there would be a cost. You using a browser has no cost.

Ettanin 21 hours ago

There's a transactional difference between Steam offering a translation button redirecting to Google Translate and you copying said content manually to Google Translate. The difference is 20 USD per million words it would cost Valve to provide this function.

If 1% of the concurrent users (400k users of 40M) would translate the above paragraph (39 "words"), it would cost Valve 312 USD. If they cache the result and the hitrate is 97%, it would still cost Valve 9.36 USD. Just for these 39 words alone.

Character Name 21 hours ago

Steam could do this. It would be convenient. Whether it is cost effective or not is up to them. Most people don't bother to use steam through the web - it's annoying and requires extra work. (no numbers are available, but google's AI agrees that not many do). It is a service that would be helpful and handy for many of us.

Originally posted by eram:
its a big expense for translation services so you log into steam via a web browser, you dont need to copy a link or anything like that.

Yes, I know it's possible, thanks for reiterating that. I don't do that, and most don't either, because we want the full steam experience - finding/installing updates, access to our library, etc.

Nx Machina 21 hours ago

Translate for customers is free.

Translate for business is expensive.

Ettanin 21 hours ago

Originally posted by Nx Machina:
Translate for business is expensive.

And in Steam's case too expensive to be feasible.

eram 20 hours ago

Originally posted by Character Name:
Steam could do this. It would be convenient. Whether it is cost effective or not is up to them. Most people don't bother to use steam through the web - it's annoying and requires extra work. (no numbers are available, but google's AI agrees that not many do). It is a service that would be helpful and handy for many of us.

Originally posted by eram:
its a big expense for translation services so you log into steam via a web browser, you dont need to copy a link or anything like that.

Yes, I know it's possible, thanks for reiterating that. I don't do that, and most don't either, because we want the full steam experience - finding/installing updates, access to our library, etc.

Using a Web browser for the forum is the full experience

Last edited by eram; 3 hours ago

#10