Official Group for Steamworks Development Support

New: Trailer categories and updated display logic

The display of trailers on Steam store pages have been updated today to address some frustrations we've heard from players when trying to find gameplay videos or navigate to screenshots. These changes include new logic that determines the order of trailers and screenshots, plus the ability to specify a category for each trailer to show to players.

Here are the two biggest changes:

Starting today, a maximum of two trailers can appear in the row of thumbnails to the left of screenshots. Any remaining trailers will be displayed after the screenshots, resulting in a default view for players that always has a mix of screenshots and trailers in view.



You are welcome to upload as many trailers for your game as you wish, but it is important to select the order of your trailers to prioritize the ones you think will be most useful to potential new customers. You can specify the order of your trailers in the 'Edit Store Page' section of Steamworks, on the 'Trailers' tab.

The two that appear first to any given player depends on any language or country settings you have set per video. If you don't have any language or country restrictions set on your trailers, then it will simply be the top two that are listed. Any remaining trailers will be included at the end of that row, following the screenshots you have uploaded to Steam.

Ideally you'll want to give players a good look at the gameplay of your game in as short a time as possible. We recommend that your first trailer be one that features primarily gameplay, clearly demonstrating what the player will be doing in the game and how they will be interacting with the world you've built. Save your company logos or narrative storylines for further into your trailer once you've gotten the interest of a player.

You can now select from a pre-set list of categories for each trailer. If a category is selected, the video player on your game's store page will now display the selected category, followed by the name of the trailer.



Now you can select a category for each trailer, specifying whether it is primarily gameplay, cinematics, teaser, or a combination of those. This category will be displayed, along with the name you entered for your trailer, in the video player on your game's store page to help players identify the videos they are most interested in watching.

• General / Cinematic - Most trailers fall into this category; these typically show a mix of pre-rendered video, logos, title screens, accolades, and maybe some limited amount of gameplay.
  
• Teaser - A short video, often posted when a game is first announced, often doesn't show much of the game but instead teases the title, IP, or franchise.
  
• Gameplay - When a trailer is mostly comprised of gameplay, showing the user what it's like to play the game and from the perspective that the player will be playing.
  
• Interview / Dev Diary - Non-fiction interview or documentary video.

We have found that it wasn't clear to developers how best to manage trailers in order to provide the best experience for players. Many games have collected a great number of trailers over their lifetime of development and have made it harder for prospective customers to find the screenshots. At the same time, we know that players are interested in understanding a little more about the trailers they are watching. This update is intended to address both of these issues and help players more quickly learn about games they are interested in.

But you may want to review your trailers
If your best trailers were already shown first on your store page, then there is nothing you immediately need to do as a result of this update. If you haven't paid a lot of attention to the order of trailers on your store page, you may wish to take a look now to see if the first two trailers provide players with the best look at your game, and make adjustments in Steamworks if appropriate.

For more details about trailers on Steam, please see Trailers documentation