How to Download and Convert Steam Game Trailers for Video Content Creation

Scenario: You have a game but no proper press kit or limited asset content to create a YouTube video or other platform content. Sometimes, games are provided via platforms like Keymailer, Lurikit, or Noiz, but without a press kit. However, you notice trailers or assets on the game's Steam product page.

You want to incorporate that trailer into the early part of your video using a video editor like DaVinci Resolve 20. Previously, you could right-click the trailer and save it as a WEBM file, then convert it to MP4 or MOV for editing. But now, Steam uses a newer format called MPEG-DASH, making that simple method obsolete.

Here’s how you can still download and convert those trailers:

Step 1: Open the Game's Steam Page in a Browser
Open your favorite browser and open the game’s store page.

Step 2: Open Developer Tools (DevTools)
Press F12 to open DevTools and click on the Inspect tool.
Click on the video trailer and play it.
While the video is playing, use the Inspect tool again to narrow down the video’s container in the HTML.

Step 3: Locate the MPEG-DASH URL
In the DevTools network or elements tab, look for a URL starting with:
https://video.fastly.steamstatic.com/store_trailers/ and ending with something like:
"dash_av1.mpd?t=xxxxxxxxxx"
Copy this full URL somewhere safe.

Step 4: Download yt-dlp
Go to the yt-dlp GitHub releases page and download the latest version for your OS.

Step 5: Set up yt-dlp on Windows

Extract the Windows .zip release.

Open an Admin Command Prompt.

Check your environment paths by typing path (typically contains C:\Windows).

Copy the extracted yt-dlp.exe to C:\Windows so you can run it from any command prompt.

Step 6: Download and Convert the Trailer

Navigate to the folder where you want to save and convert the video, for example:


F:\> mkdir convert
F:\> cd convert
Ensure you have the MPEG-DASH URL copied.

Run the command:


yt-dlp "paste-the-steam-trailer-url-here"
yt-dlp will download the trailer and convert it into an MP4 file automatically.

Step 7: Import into Your Video Editor
Now, the MP4 is ready to be imported into your video editor like DaVinci Resolve 20 for your project.

Summary:
Despite Steam shifting to MPEG-DASH streaming for trailers, this method using yt-dlp lets you still extract game trailers in a usable format without a press kit. Perfect for early video edits and enhancing your content with quality official trailers.

Feel free to ask if you need help with any step! Happy editing!