Everybody is celebrating Steam adding an ‘Add to library’ button to free-to-play games, but I’m left feeling a little disappointed they didn’t go further with this feature.
Why? Well, if they just put the same button across all games, including those that are not free, Valve could get rid of one of the biggest pain points of the Steam Deck UI — redeeming game codes.
Where should it go?
Don’t get me wrong, the fact you have an option to just add free to play games to your library rather than just installing them immediately is warmly welcomed, both for convenience and for taking advantage of any limited time free game promotions.
But let me take you through the process of redeeming a code on Steam Deck right now. It involves heading into the settings, scrolling down to the bottom to Library, and entering the code. To me, that’s not great UI design, as it hides this behind a few taps.
If the option to "Add to library" was on every game’s store page, which took you to a code redemption screen, that would eliminate all of the rigmarole. I’ll even take a quicker option to redeem a code in the Steam button side menu!
So I ask of you, dear Gabe, please give us all greater simplicity. Take what you’ve got here and go all in on streamlining the entire experience of adding any game to a Steam library.
