[Update: thanks to a commenter, we now know that Steam Broadcasting uses HTML5 and not Flash.]

Some of you may have noticed that Steam looks a little different. (You’re most likely to have noticed this change on games’ hub pages, as illustrated above.)

That’s because Steam now allows for live streaming.

Developers will be able to stream their own games and, more importantly, so will you and your friends. When a friend’s playing a game, clicking through to their profile will now display a “Watch Game” option if that friend has opted into Broadcasting.

To make use of Steam Broadcasting, all you need to do is opt into Steam’s beta participation. You can do that by going to the Steam client settings, and changing your beta participation to “Steam Beta Update”.

Broadcasters are able to fiddle with privacy settings to adjust who’s able to watch their streams, whether their desktop’s visible, and more. For now, broadcasts are live only; the stream can’t be saved anywhere.

Could Valve be getting ready to compete with Amazon’s Twitch and (to a lesser extent) Google’s Youtube?

If you have questions, see Steam’s FAQ on the topic.