If streaming takes off, should Steam enter the arena?

[EdReedFan20]

If Stadia and xCloud are successful (and PS Now keeps improving), should Steam enter the streaming arena? Sure, you can stream your Steam games right now, but that is essentially remote play, as you are still required to have your game library locally installed to your computer. Having the option on Steam to play games via the cloud would be nice, provided they still let you install games locally. Would you use it if they offered it?

 

[No_Style]

They could but who will they partner with? Amazon AWS?

 

[Crayon]

I can stream all my games off my own hardware to anywhere for no charge. They are out in front if you ask me. If they have cloud based streaming in mind, i can't think of a better foundation than having that feature for that userbase.

 

[kurahador]

Maybe they'll just be Blockbuster and stick to their ways.

 

[Lump]

Geforce Now is already this for a ton of Steam games, though it's a bit of a pain in the ass to authenticate across multiple libraries.

Honestly Steam should just partner with someone like Nvidia and help them get a Single Sign On solution working.

 

[CommodoreKong]

They could but who will they partner with? Amazon AWS?

Click to shrink...

Valve already has their own worldwide server network for hosting game servers and anticheat servers that monitor games in real time to watch for cheaters. I doubt they would need to partner with anyone.

 

[Lucas M. Thomas]

SteamStream™

 

[EdReedFan20]

They could but who will they partner with? Amazon AWS?

Click to shrink...

Sure. Why not? Google's doing Stadia with their cloud service (does it have a name?). Microsoft's xCloud is using Azure. Amazon's cloud service is massive as well, but they don't currently have a game cloud service. Partnering with Valve would be huge. Not that it matters, but Amazon and Valve are HQed in the Seattle area (though, so is MS, so that probably doesn't make all that much of a difference).

 

[Deleted member 2840]

Valve already has their own worldwide server network for hosting game servers and anticheat servers that monitor games in real time to watch for cheaters. I doubt they would need to partner with anyone.

Click to shrink...

The infrastructure needed for Games streaming is way more massive than what Valve has right now. People sometimes forget, but they're peanuts compared to those giants like Amazon, Google and Microsoft. I can see them maybe working together with Microsoft/Azure, but to try and do it alone? Massive investment, absurdly risky, pretty hard competition.

 

[Arulan]

For me personally, their Remote Play functionality is a lot more useful. It's also easily available, including the (retired) Steam Link, Raspberry Pi, Samsung TVs, Android, and iOS. I'm already living in a world where I can take my Steam controller and walk to any display in my home and start playing my games. The situations in which I'm outside of my home, with a very solid connection, and would care about the differences between rendering on my hardware versus that of a server are pretty slim. If it was offered for free, then I suppose I'd use it in those situations.

 

[chrominance]

Streaming doesn't really appeal to Steam's core audience, it doesn't play to Valve's traditional strengths or make great use of their current competitive advantages, and it would have them competing directly with established behemoths in an industry that requires substantial investment in network and hardware infrastructure.

 

[dex3108]

As others said Steam entered streaming market already and currently offers best solution in my opinion. You still own all your games, you still can play modded games, you can stream your games on many devices for free.

 

[DarKaoZ]

They should, it would be a waste of their name. lol

 

[SleepSmasher]

Sure. Why not? Google's doing Stadia with their cloud service (does it have a name?)

Click to shrink...

Believe it or not, it's called Google Cloud.

 

[Conkerkid11]

If it takes off. Yes.

Maybe they'll just be Blockbuster and stick to their ways.

Click to shrink...

That's suggesting streaming games will become big. Did Blockbuster get destroyed by streaming? Or did they get destroyed by Netflix's original plan of ordering movies by mail, and Redbox? I think a better comparison would be the difference between owning physical copies of games and owning digital copies of games.

Streaming movies and television is one thing. It takes significantly less bandwidth, and there's no input lag. It's still miles behind playing physical copies, but nobody really notices.

Streaming games not only takes significantly more bandwidth, but it introduces more input lag.

Also, how would something like Steam workshop functionality work? One of the biggest new genres started as a mod, which at the moment doesn't have a chance at existing in streaming services.

 

[Catshade]

I'd be more interested in a Steam subscription service with their massive (back-)catalogue.

 

[dex3108]

But if they decide to enter cloud streaming race I hope that they will just rent virtual machines where you still can use your games however you want.

 

[CommodoreKong]

The infrastructure needed for Games streaming is way more massive than what Valve has right now. People sometimes forget, but they're peanuts compared to those giants like Amazon, Google and Microsoft. I can see them maybe working together with Microsoft/Azure, but to try and do it alone? Massive investment, absurdly risky, pretty hard competition.

Click to shrink...

Valve has a worldwide network backbone with datacenters around the world that host game servers and content servers and spent millions upon millions of dollars on high end server hardware just to scan every CSGO match for cheaters.
I just don't see Valve partnering with another company to host servers for streaming games if they decide to go that direction when they've spent so much time and money on their own network. I honestly don't even believe money would be a limiting factor to Valve, the thing would be getting enough people at Valve to think it's worth the time and effort to do game streaming, especially since they built an alternate solution for their customers already.

 

[Xeontech]

Steam announces its new monthly subscription service, Stream.

Subscribers get access to all their steam library on any device via the cloud.

$14.99 per month.

Tbh, I'd bite.

 

[.exe]

I'll be okay with them sticking to the remote play stuff they've been working on and improving that.

 

[dex3108]

Steam announces its new monthly subscription service, Stream.

Subscribers get access to all their steam library on any device via the cloud.

$14.99 per month.

Tbh, I'd bite.

Click to shrink...

If you have decent connection and PC capable of running your library of games you can already do that for free via Steam Remote Play.

 

[TyrantGuardian]

Lol OP Steam already has fully featured streaming. They just aren't nickel and diming their customers for it.

 

[RestEerie]

So the local store is called 'Steam' and the cloud version will be called 'Water Vapor'?

 

[Outtrigger888]

Valve has a worldwide network backbone with datacenters around the world that host game servers and content servers and spent millions upon millions of dollars on high end server hardware just to scan every CSGO match for cheaters.
I just don't see Valve partnering with another company to host servers for streaming games if they decide to go that direction when they've spent so much time and money on their own network. I honestly don't even believe money would be a limiting factor to Valve, the thing would be getting enough people at Valve to think it's worth the time and effort to do game streaming, especially since they built an alternate solution for their customers already.

Click to shrink...

I don't think you get how game streaming works. Valve only has data servers.

 

[lvl 99 Pixel]

SteamStream™

Click to shrink...

Id call it SteamValve

 

[S I C K O]

If the market changes should Steam adapt or just remain stagnant and lose money?

Hmmmm. A difficult answer.

 

[Futaleufu]

I would think casual gamers/console owners may be far more interested in game streaming subscriptions than PC gamers with high end machines.

 

[CommodoreKong]

I don't think you get how game streaming works. Valve only has data servers.

Click to shrink...

Honesty it's pretty insulting to say I don't understand how game streaming works, I know how it works and have been playing around with Valve's solution for some time now.

My post is to illustrate what Valve has built up with their server network and network backbone instead of relying on other companies. I don't believe they would go with a third party solution but would instead add new hardware to their existing data centers if they were going to do streaming. However I don't think it's likely either way, Valve isn't exactly a huge or fast moving company and they're probably happy with their current solution unless Stadia or xcloud really takes off.

 

[Deleted member 3196]

Honestly, I'd rather Valve invest more in improving Remote Play than funnel money and effort into a cloud venture that will either collapse under the weight of its own popularity (because there's no way Valve can go to scale in a way Google or MS can - and I'm sceptical of the viability of their cloud efforts), or collapse because it's unpopular.

I'd like to see them do some stuff with controllers. I think the Stadia WiFi controller is a splendid idea, even for In-Home streaming. Imagine having one controller that is already "paired" to your PC, whether you're streaming to your TV, your iPad, or playing at your desk.

I'd also like to see a Steam Link client for more platforms. They should be ambitious about where they go next. Release an app for Windows 10/Xbox One to utilise all those Xbox consoles and cheap Windows 10 tablets without having them run the full Steam client.

Also they should invest time and effort into making the Steam UI adaptable to different inputs. Big Picture needs a new lick of paint and they could also implement a touch UI for certain scenarios.

And they should try the GOG 2.0 approach of integrating more launchers into the Steam client in order to keep the center of gravity around Steam and Steam services. Right now a lot of workarounds are needed to integrate certain games or launchers and it could be a lot more simple for the end user.

All of those would be more valuable than chasing the cloud streaming gold rush that is expensive and may not be as lucrative as some are hoping.

 

[CommodoreKong]

Honestly, I'd rather Valve invest more in improving Remote Play than funnel money and effort into a cloud venture that will either collapse under the weight of its own popularity (because there's no way Valve can go to scale in a way Google or MS can - and I'm sceptical of the viability of their cloud efforts), or collapse because it's unpopular.

I'd like to see them do some stuff with controllers. I think the Stadia WiFi controller is a splendid idea, even for In-Home streaming. Imagine having one controller that is already "paired" to your PC, whether you're streaming to your TV, your iPad, or playing at your desk.

I'd also like to see a Steam Link client for more platforms. They should be ambitious about where they go next. Release an app for Windows 10/Xbox One to utilise all those Xbox consoles and cheap Windows 10 tablets without having them run the full Steam client.

Also they should invest time and effort into making the Steam UI adaptable to different inputs. Big Picture needs a new lick of paint and they could also implement a touch UI for certain scenarios.

And they should try the GOG 2.0 approach of integrating more launchers into the Steam client in order to keep the center of gravity around Steam and Steam services. Right now a lot of workarounds are needed to integrate certain games or launchers and it could be a lot more simple for the end user.

All of those would be more valuable than chasing the cloud streaming gold rush that is expensive and may not be as lucrative as some are hoping.

Click to shrink...

I do wonder about the viability of cloud gaming in general since providers will need to continue to scale up hardware for high end games in a unique way that doesn't exist in quite the same way as other types of streaming. Gaming also has issues that other types of streaming doesn't since the streaming content can't be buffered like video or music and of course latency. It's going to be interesting to see what happens.

I actually recently found my Xbox One controller wireless adapter that I had lost when moving last year and having the controller connected to the PC instead of to my tablet does feel better than connecting it to my tablet when testing Steam Link so that would be a good way to go for Valve.

I also agree that seeing the Steam Link app in more places would be great.

 

[Laser Man]

Maybe they should but I hope they'll still deliver actual files to your local harddrive or else any form of community work on games will be forever a thing of the past, no mods, no reshade, no bugfixes etc

 

[daninthemix]

Sure. Why not? Google's doing Stadia with their cloud service (does it have a name?). Microsoft's xCloud is using Azure. Amazon's cloud service is massive as well, but they don't currently have a game cloud service. Partnering with Valve would be huge. Not that it matters, but Amazon and Valve are HQed in the Seattle area (though, so is MS, so that probably doesn't make all that much of a difference).

Click to shrink...

Valve and MS seem quite cosy going by Phil Spencer's recent interview's so they could just run it on Azure.

 

[Deleted member 3196]

I actually recently found my Xbox One controller wireless adapter that I had lost when moving last year and having the controller connected to the PC instead of to my tablet does feel better than connecting it to my tablet when testing Steam Link so that would be a good way to go for Valve.

Click to shrink...

I find input is generally more reliable when connecting directly to the PC rather than relying on the Steam Link app/Gamestream to handle input, just because it behaves in the way I expect it to, rather than how the people who made the app want it to behave to work with the tvOS/Android TV features. In my case, I actually just use VirtualHere for my controllers where possible, as I have a Shield Remote to control the Shield TV when I'm not streaming games. That way I don't need any weird button combinations to bring up the overlay or pause the game as I do on current Android implementations of Steam Link/Gamestream.

So having the controller bypass the client device and just connect directly to the PC, even if it's over the LAN, would just be infinitely better than connecting via Bluetooth, so long as latency wasn't an issue. But I believe Google claimed that making the Stadia controller WiFi has improved latency via cloud streaming, so maybe it will feel a tad snappier when doing it over LAN too.

At any rate, that's just me throwing an idea out there of something their money, time and effort could be better spent on. My larger point is that I think Valve would definitely be better off improving the experience of playing games on your PC rather than chasing a cloud gaming gold rush.

 

[craven68]

I hope that they are going to do it. It will be so nice to play visual novel or indie game on my iPad pro without my computer on.

 

[Possumowner]

Steam announces its new monthly subscription service, Stream.

Subscribers get access to all their steam library on any device via the cloud.

$14.99 per month.

Tbh, I'd bite.

Click to shrink...

Yup,me to,to be honest

 

[Kilgore]

They better enter before streaming takes off.

 

[Deleted member 5457]

Remember this? (I marked the interesting part)

https://youtu.be/PeYxKIDGh8I?t=9m33s

Gabe's view is always interesting, I wonder what he thinks today. Part about sending video not being the best option intrigued me, I wonder what could other solutions be...

 

[mario_O]

God no. If streaming is terrible with Steam using your computer in your house with 5Ghz wifi (and that's as good as it gets), imagine from a server 100-50 miles out.

 

[TyrantGuardian]

God no. If streaming is terrible with Steam using your computer in your house with 5Ghz wifi (and that's as good as it gets), imagine from a server 100-50 miles out.

Click to shrink...

I did Steam remote play in a moving car over a phone network for an hour with zero hiccups and perfectly fine latency for slow-ish games.

It works remarkably well.

 

[thebishop]

I haven't had a good experience with remote play from my own network. You just can't account for the number of hops between home/router, and your client. It's not really comparable to an actual cloud solution where your connection request can be automatically routed to the nearest data center.

Steam's remote play on the same lan is excellent, but over the internet, it's not up to the task imo.