According to the official Steam Hardware Survey for December 2023, 98.95 % of customers on Windows are utilizing Windows 10 or 11, with simply .93 % of customers nonetheless clinging to Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1. Starting at this time, that not-quite-one-percent of customers ought to actually take into account an improve, at the least in the event that they need to keep in Valve’s good graces. The firm has introduced that it’s formally ending assist for Steam on Windows 7 and eight as of the primary of the 12 months.

“Steam Support will be unable to offer users technical support for issues related to the old operating systems, and Steam will be unable to guarantee continued functionality,” says the official notification on Valve’s support page. While Steam ought to technically hold engaged on older variations of Windows at the least for a while, Valve isn’t making any guarantees. The alert says that the choice was made as a result of Steam’s built-in browser depends on embedded elements from Google Chrome, which has equally ended assist for the older variations of Windows.

Both Valve and Google are following in Microsoft’s official footsteps, for the reason that firm ended full support for Windows 7 back in 2020 and Windows 8.1 (the final official replace) nearly exactly a year ago. PC players are usually fairly longing for the most recent and best software program, however a few of them do appear oddly reticent to replace to new working programs for concern of surprising performance downgrades. Perhaps a push from the de facto commonplace for PC recreation shops will give them that final little bit of encouragement they want.