Ever wanted to play a game from your Steam library, but also felt like, if you got out of bed, you’d have to face a spiteful, uncaring world? Soon, Steam will have a solution to that: Free apps that let you stream Steam games (and movies) to your phone.
The Steam Link app, coming out the week of May 21, will let Steam users play their games on Android and iOS devices (phones, tablets and even Apple TV) if they’re connected via Wi-Fi or ethernet to the same network as a PC or Mac with Steam installed. The feature will be compatible with Steam controllers and MFI controllers too, meaning that controlling games (hopefully) won’t be a total nightmare.
Valve also said today that it will bring out a similar video app later this winter. If you’ve purchased movies or shows on Steam, you’ll be able to watch them on the go over Wi-Fi or LTE. Sounds like a handy way to both entertain yourself while out and answer nagging questions such as “Why did I buy a movie on Steam when I’m about to literally suffocate and die because I’m drowning in movie services?”
Comments
23 responses to “Soon, You’ll Be Able To Play Steam Games On Your Phone”
I used to dream of a Steam service that was for movies… but my dream included being the de facto platform for all releases, access to your favourite titles, not the garbage that’s dominating the steam movie space now. Especially not at the price it’s up for. I dreamed of a low digital baseline with massive studio sales.
I dreamed of an a la carte service that would actually compete with streaming services, not the current humiliating indie dumping ground/charity.
Is this going to carry over to the Steam Link itself, or is this them abandoning the Steam Link and going in a different direction?
been playing witcher3 on my htc for awhile now though RemotR and a wireless controller.
no complaints about it, but it would be nice that the service might be included into the steam app so it was more streamline
Hey Valve! I’d be more excited about you delivering these neat novelty features that a comparatively small number of PC players will use more than once or twice if you also developed and delivered games.
Well this should be interesting to see how it pans out in reality. The first problem is controls where you either need to have a separately purchased external peripheral device available or deal with whatever on screen controls are available. Then you have the problem of it running over Wi-Fi which introduces lag and signal strength issues. You could use 5GHz to improve the response time but as I’ve found out first hand, that means you can say goodbye to your battery holding charge for any decent amount of time. If you’re on the go it will be even worse since you will now be facing a double whammy of phone networks and your home internet connection.
I’m guessing the primary focus will be movies and slow paced, click based games rather than their twitchier relatives.
If Battletech ever gets touchscreen controls, I can just live in bed forever.
Playing on the couch next to my GF will be A Thing. This is a Good Thing.
There’s been some great turn-based stuff coming out. I spent less time with Dead in Vinland than I wanted to, BattleTech is love, FrostPunk is pausable, and I’ve been meaning to spend more time with StarCrawlers, Darkest Dungeon, hell, even the Sims seems like it’d work pretty well.
I just started Darkest Dungeon, as well. They’re pretty much all my gaming time right now.
Battletech is so goddamn good. When the patches drop to speed up turn and load times, it’ll be just amazing. Oh and some mods for new paintjobs on mechs would be good.
I don’t think this will work “on the go”, it will just use the current in-home streaming protocols, and from what I’ve read will only work on 5GHz wifi (or ethernet connection if your device supports that)
I could see myself playing warhammer 40k dark crusade on it. It might go alright with some RTS games.
That or I need to find my old Sony Xperia play phone.
On the one hand, wifi streaming is pretty bad.
On the other hand, Valve’s solution tends to work better than any of the others I’ve tried, so this might very well work out.
I only just picked up a MFi controller for my iPad and Apple TV, so this is good timing from Valve, although the MFi controller doesn’t have L3 and R3 buttons. I wonder how well it will go vs my Samsung TV’s built in Steam Link app. Will the iOS app get updated more frequently?
That’s cool, would be useful for playing a Visual Novel in bed, and any turn based RPG would work great.
My Steam Link works great, but that’s because i run it completely wired through a Ethernet Power adaptor so it’ll be interesting to see how well it goes over wi-fi.
Also if this works the same as the steam link, you should still be able to have full control of your desktop, which means streaming local movies is a possibility.
From my own hdd? Now I’m properly interested…
Yeah you can literally just run VLC and have it streaming to your phone, once again assuming that it works on the same rules as a steam link.
I also do this to game the Foxtel Now application, which doesn’t let you chromecast it and i don’t want to have a PC hooked up to my TV in my living room just so i can watch one football game a week.
(Also before people get confused, Foxtel Now is not Foxtel GO, Foxtel Now is a service you can get if you have a normal Foxtel subscription, that lest you stream certain channels, i borrow my Parent’s account so i can watch the football/Basketball, i let them use my Netflix account in return)
I would consider heavily if I could watch my own HDD VLC while elsewhere.
Via WiFi or Ethernet only? I’d never bother using this feature because gameplay would be infinitely better on my PC at home and when I’m not at home, WiFi quality will probably be too poor unless it’s at work, and at work they’ll probably figure out a way to block it. Without allowing use of mobile data, this feature seems to be a trivial novelty at best.
I’m pretty sure the devices have to be on the same network anyway, so it won’t even be possible to run it at work without some tricky VPN setup.
I don’t think I’ve seen a phone with Ethernet capability.
Some tablets have it, but it’s unusual.
Woohoo, finally I will be able to achieve my dream of playing Game Dev Tycoon on the Toilet.
Will it allow me to play Magic Duels on my android phone?
Awesome, cause moonlight and remotr are broken