Earlier this year, SteamSpy revealed that it will be closing down due to change in Steam’s privacy policy by Valve that cuts off the primary stream of data on which SteamSpy depends, however, creator Sergey Galyonkin developed a new algorithm to keep its service alive.
Galyonkin wrote in his latest blog post that the new algorithm for its service uses the coincidental data on games and machine learning.
However, he added that the new algorithm is “not very accurate” and there is approx. 10% margin for all games that he tested for the new algorithm.
I will keep on iterating the new algorithm while slowly bringing back the core functions of SteamSpy. It will take some time and it’s still possible that Valve will make another move to shutdown the service, but until that happens, SteamSpy will continue to operate.
Furthermore, Galyonkin has put some restrictions on access for those who are not supporting his work on Patreon but, he explained that the reason why he has done is that is because the algorithm is not yet ready.
I did that because I’m still not entirely happy with my new algorithm and its precision, and also because a lot of things on SteamSpy are still broken.
I do believe in giving everyone the access to the essential information, but until I fix everything, SteamSpy will be semi-closed to the general audience.
He also added that following the change in privacy policy he “wrote a proposal to Valve that would still let the service run using the old algorithm without exposing any personal data”.
He only got a confirmation from the company that they have received the proposal but, that is the extent of the response he got from Valve.
Do you think the SteamSpy will survive with the new algorithm following the privacy changes to Steam? Let us know in the comments.
Source: Galyonk
