Original story: Valve director of marketing Doug Lombardi has confirmed to Shacknews that The Steam Community--a new service that will add extensive social networking features to the company's online Steam platform--is set to enter beta testing within the week.

Previously announced last month, The Steam Community will see the addition of voice chat, user profiles and groups, organized matches, and opponent tracking to the company's popular gaming hub.

The service was originally marked for release in late July. According to Lombardi, more details of the launch are forthcoming in an official release.