Is it possible to play multiplayer with 2 steam decks with out internet

[smkymcnugget420]

Me and my brother both have steam decks, we go off grid for weekends to a place without internet OR cell service. Is there a way we can play together on our steam decks without and internet or cell phone (hotspot) connection. can they link through bluetooth directly? can they be hardlined with USB-C? Or will i need to set up and Ad-hoc network with a PC so they can connect through that? or is such a thing even possible?

[Taktloss]

Not possible. The Steam Deck is just like a PC and since most games use Steamworks and their service you need to be connected with Steam. Might be possible with some obscure games that still support playing over a Lan Connection which are nowadays not much for example Counter Strike 1.6 might still work

[Gordao]

Ajudou

[Man's Best Friend]

The biggest issue (aside from finding games that will work) would be getting the network environment setup properly. This boils down to "can the Deck create its own wireless network?" It probably can, but it would likely have to be done in desktop mode. Ad-hoc wireless networking has been a thing since basically the dawn of wifi. I don't think it has to be supported in the hardware, just software. Still, even if you can setup a network, would it persist into gaming mode, or would the host have to stay in desktop mode? Would other decks have to have manual IP addresses setup, or will the host perform DHCP, or will everyone just automatically pick an address in the same subnet?

What we need is someone with two Decks, or at least someone with a friend who has a Deck as well to test these things.

Edit: Just did a quick check and it does appear that at least from the software side the Deck is capable of creating an ad-hoc network when you're in desktop mode. So that's step one sorted.

[smkymcnugget420]

Originally posted by HTTP Error 418: I'm a teapot:

The biggest issue (aside from finding games that will work) would be getting the network environment setup properly. This boils down to "can the Deck create its own wireless network?" It probably can, but it would likely have to be done in desktop mode. Ad-hoc wireless networking has been a thing since basically the dawn of wifi. I don't think it has to be supported in the hardware, just software. Still, even if you can setup a network, would it persist into gaming mode, or would the host have to stay in desktop mode? Would other decks have to have manual IP addresses setup, or will the host perform DHCP, or will everyone just automatically pick an address in the same subnet?

What we need is someone with two Decks, or at least someone with a friend who has a Deck as well to test these things.

Well me and my brother will be off grid this weekend so we can test some options out and report back... what if i used a cellphone as a hotspot, but with no internet, would that work as a "hub" so to speak? might come down to docking station and CAT6 hardline network, which will be a pain in the butt... i kinda hoped that the decks would be able to "talk to" each other directly, without the use of internet or networking.

as for the game in questions, we just wanted to play Gauntlet together for now... maybe some project zomboid.

seems like this is going to take some tinkering if it will work at all, thanks for the replies i looked all over the place for an answer but nobody had addressed the "no internet/no cell phone" part. Appreciate you all!

[Taktloss]

Originally posted by davoto:

"The Steam Deck is just like a PC", therefore, you SHOULD be able to play LAN capable games at least. Whether you can or not, I don't know. Hopefully someone that has done this can chime in 'cause I'd like to know as well.

You definitely can but nowadays most companies don't care about LAN gaming everything needs to be online on their own proprietary server's and even better with it's own Launcher/Client software.
As most games use more or less Steamworks you need at least to be online with the Steam Client so maybe the old stuff that always worked back in the days and don't use much if any Steamworks features will work

[psymin]

In theory you might be able to use a phone wifi hotspot (without cell service) to get both decks on the same wireless LAN.

Then *maybe* you could do a remote play together game, or maybe you could play a networked game that doesn't require any steam functionality.

Edit: I suspect that the Steam games listed here might work:
https://itch.io/games/multiplayer-adhoc/steam-key

[D-Fuse]

Hi Smky,
Any update on how it turned out? I’m in the same boat as you, going off the grid regularly with limited/no cell connnexion and 2 SD to connect together

[jdurer]

This would be an awfully nice feature to add... the video on the store page show people playing on multiple decks together in a park. I suppose that park has wifi...

[NizBoot]

Originally posted by jdurer:

This would be an awfully nice feature to add... the video on the store page show people playing on multiple decks together in a park. I suppose that park has wifi...

I have wanted this for when my wife and I fly somewhere. It seems that would be a fun thing to do when flying into Iceland - play some viking games. Any updates?