How To Roll Back Steam Update

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Steam volition still let yous revert to one-time game builds, despite beta concerns

(Image credit: Valve)

Update: Valve has responded to claims that Steam volition soon disable the option to download previous versions of games. In a statement provided to PC Gamer, a spokesperson clarifies the visitor is not planning to disable admission to older versions of software.

"We are actually not planning to disable downloading old builds. What we are working on is an approach on treatment edge cases involving unowned content, and helping partners more than hands take down builds that need to be removed for things like copyright issues," the statement reads. "We'll have more to share on that work when it'due south ready to transport."

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Original story: The option to revert to an older build of a game has been an undocumented feature of Steam for a while now, but equally SteamDB (opens in new tab) notes, the latest beta changes how the client connects to its content delivery network, removing the access customers had to previous versions of their games.

Going back to an earlier build wasn't something every Steam user was likely to demand—in 2020 what was previously a command line function was quietly changed to crave a tertiary-party tool—only it nevertheless had value. Updates to games like Thousand Theft Auto 4, Beat Saber, Dragonball Z: Kakarot, and diverse Bethesda RPGs have cleaved mods and required either updates from the modders or rolling back to an older build. Some speedrunners and achievement hunters rely on access to specific versions of games, and they're also worth having from an archival perspective. When an update to Age of Empires ii: Definitive Edition made old replays unwatchable, casters had to downgrade to a previous patch (opens in new tab) to get them dorsum.

It's worth pointing out that this is different to when developers give access to variant builds via beta branches, which won't be affected. Even if this alter does get ahead in Steam'southward stable version, you should notwithstanding be able to access the builds you need to play Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator in VR (opens in new tab) and enable split-screen co-op in Resident Evil 5 (opens in new tab), for instance.

"We do non know if Steam CDN will enforce this requirement for all games (if at all), or what other requirements may be", the SteamDB team writes, while also noting, "This modify will impact how SteamDB operates, and nosotros volition no longer be able to fully track file lists of all games on Steam".

According to the beta patch notes (opens in new tab), the alter will "Ensure that all installed and Cloud-enabled games are synchronized as soon as possible, to avert delays when launching games and to prepare for possible offline play." The SteamDB squad explained separately that this is unrelated to the possible issue with accessing older builds, nevertheless.

We've reached out to Valve for comment and volition let you lot know if we receive a reply.

Jody'southward first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a lawmaking bicycle to play Pool of Radiance. A erstwhile music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio testify about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Newspaper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the banking concern. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was published in 2015, he edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and really did play every Warhammer videogame.

Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/steam-beta-suggests-you-wont-be-able-to-revert-to-old-game-builds-much-longer/

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