Steam Allows Adding Free Games To Library Without Downloading

In addition to all the games that you have to buy, Steam has quite a healthy catalogue of free games. This include certain limited-time promos where games are given out for free for a limited time, to celebrate a sequel getting announced for instance. When these come around, it may have occurred to you that the ability to add them to your library without downloading them would be nice. This wasn’t possible for the longest time, but now it finally is, at long last.

Twitter user @RobotRush shared a cropped screenshot of a new button appearing on the Steam page of Star Wars: The Old Replublic MMO. In the screenshot, you can see the usual “Play Game” button, which is now accompanied by a new “Add to Library” button. It may be a small thing – so small in fact that Steam didn’t even bother to list it in its update notes, according to ComicBook, but it’s a massive quality-of-life improvement.

Steam has added “add to library” button without needing to start installation process. At long long last. https://t.co/rO5ywsJHLo

— Alejandro LL. (@Morwull) August 13, 2022

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Previously, the way you added a free game to your library was to initiate the download process of said game, and then cancelling the download immediately after. This could take up a few extra seconds because Steam then starts calculating and allocating disk space. But now that the “add to Library” button exists, there’s no longer any need to perform the workaround, which was always more steps than was necessary anyway.

It’s worth noting that while the Steam PC software shows this new “Add to Library” button, it is not something that you’d find on its web page. It’s a strange omission, since the client is really only needed if you want to start the downloading process. But if you’re a gamer worth your salt, then you would already have Steam installed on your PC anyway.

(Source: @RobotRush / Twitter via ComicBook.com)

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