Steam Started Hiding Game Updates So You Can't Track Them on SteamDB

SteamDB is a very valuable source of information about Steam games. While you probably mostly use it to see numbers of concurrent players, another great superpower it has is tracking updates. However, it might soon come to an end as the creator of the portal revealed that Steam has started to enable "private branches" for some games, "so SteamDB will not be able to track updates for these anymore."

This is upsetting news because this functionality provides tons of information, leading to leaks and speculation. For example, recently, fans found some suspicious activity in Half-Life 2 updates, making them believe Valve is preparing a present for the game's 20th anniversary on November 16.

For now, private branches are available for some games only, but I wouldn't be too surprised to see Valve offering them for everybody, especially big companies, who are especially sensitive to leaks.

I guess it means that dataminers will have to work harder now, and we, simple users, will have fewer sources of information.

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