Summary
- Steam users want an "Update All" button for game updates.
- COVID-19 changed Steam's update process to spread out downloads.
- Adding an "Update All" feature could strain Steam's infrastructure.
Steam users are requesting a quality of life improvement that would let them quickly set up all of their games to download their updates and install. The addition is something that the Steam community is discussing, with some pointing out a change that was made to Steam game updates years ago that hasn't been reverted since.
Steam is the leading PC gaming platform, though several have tried to take its crown. While there are still competitors, some have given up on the idea, with even ex-Amazon exec admitting Amazon tried to challenge Steam, but ultimately never cracked the code. However, that doesn't mean that the platform is perfect, and fans are requesting an alteration to how game updates work.
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Over on Reddit, user lemonvrc pointed out that there's no easy way to queue up all of one's game updates at once. For players who regularly enjoy many games, if a lot of updates show up, they have to either wait for Steam to gradually download them based on its own automatic process, or click through individually to set them all to begin downloading. While it would be a small feature, Lemonvrc wishes that there were quality of life improvement to Steam that would add a simple update all button that would queue all of one's games that have available updates to download and install them right away.
COVID-19 Changed How Steam Worked, And It Hasn't Gone Back
Steam has changed how update downloads have worked over the years a few times, but a major change to Steam updates was made during COVID-19. Due to people being stuck at home, Steam put out an official post explaining that it was making a change to how automatic updates worked, by spreading them out more to take some of the strain off its servers. The change made it so that games that are played within the last 3 days will see their updates automatically queued ASAP. Players report that anything they've played within the last week or so will see its update downloaded overnight, while games that have been left untouched for longer may not see updates for a day or more.
While some fans wish that Steam would make a change, it seems unlikely that it will for the foreseeable future. Steam is an extremely popular gaming platform, and if every user were given the option to update all of their games at once, it would be taxing on Steam's infrastructure. Given that many years have passed since the COVID-19 shutdown where everyone was stuck at home and many gamers were constantly online, for whatever reason, it would seem that Valve decided not to revert the changes it made during that time.
