Steam With New Download Method? May Help People With Slow Internet
More footprints in the code of Steam prove that Valve is preparing a useful feature for people who play the company's platform on multiple devices.
Steam may introduce a feature that will make it easier to install games on multiple devices. Pavel Djundik, creator of SteamDB, noted that the latest beta update introduced another mention in the platform's code about the option to transfer games over a local network.
The topic was first mentioned in October 2022 (via Pavel Djundik on Twitter). What's more, even then some users managed to get the feature working, albeit it was unstable.
Steam like torrents
As Djundik reported, Valve is planning to use a peer-to-peer system to enable the transfer of Steam data between devices connected to the same local network. In practice, this means that users will be able to download their games or updates not from the Internet, but from another device, such as a PC to a Steam deck.
Such a solution should be of interest primarily to those with slower or less stable connections, sparing them the laborious task of downloading data from the Internet on each individual device. Nevertheless, Djundik suggests that for installed games the process will also be faster because it will skip the step of decrypting the packed data.
Access restrictions
This much we already knew in October. Data from the new update confirms that work on this feature is progressing, but also reveals that Steam will enable us to choose where we download files from. We will be able to allow transfers from or to our own devices, but also from friends or any user.
Officially, Valve still doesn't mention this feature, so it's impossible to guess when it will arrive on Steam, if only in beta. Let's hope the company doesn't make us wait this new feature for too long.
