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Judge Jul 20, 2023 @ 8:06am

Download to PC and Android Tablet

I have an android tablet for when I travel as well as a laptop I game with at home. Can I download games I've subscribed to from my library to both? Currently, I have them downlaoded to my game laptop which I don't take on the road with me (easier to use the tablet when traveling). What do I need to be able to play them on my android away from my home and not linked to my game laptop?

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Showing 1-15 of 17 comments

eram Jul 20, 2023 @ 8:07am

pc games wont work on android

Judge Jul 20, 2023 @ 8:11am

To be clear, games I subscribe to on Steam cannot be run on Android?

ReBoot Jul 20, 2023 @ 8:12am

That's what Eram just said. May I recommend a Steam Deck? This thing is rather easy to carry around and does in fact play Steam games.

Last edited by ReBoot; Jul 20, 2023 @ 8:19am

Cathulhu Jul 20, 2023 @ 8:16am

Originally posted by Judge:
To be clear, games I subscribe to on Steam cannot be run on Android?

Steam only offers PC games. If you are looking for android games, try the Google Playstore.

nullable Jul 20, 2023 @ 8:19am

Originally posted by Judge:
To be clear, games I subscribe to on Steam cannot be run on Android?

Tablets and phones use ARM cpus, PC's mostly use x86/x64 Intel based CPU's. Most games on Steam are targeted at Windows based Intel/AMD based systems. There's some Linux or MacOS support but those generally depend on x86x64 processors too. Unless the tablet offers some feature akin to Rosetta 2 on M1/M2 based Macs then tablets ain't running software built for completely different systems.

Tablets/phones are generally not Windows or Intel x86 based. And those are pretty large differences. And why you can't run PC games directly on a tablet. You'd typically need the game ported and sold on the Android or Apple stores. And that's up to the developer of each game, not Valve/Steam.

Last edited by nullable; Jul 20, 2023 @ 8:23am

Spawn of Totoro Jul 20, 2023 @ 8:23am

Originally posted by Judge:
To be clear, games I subscribe to on Steam cannot be run on Android?

Correct. Android runs on an ARM based CPU.

You can try using Geforce Now to stream your Steam games on the tablet, but that is as close as you can get.

Satoru Jul 20, 2023 @ 8:25am

You can stream games to the tablet via SteamLink

But you can't play games directly on the device as mobile devices run on a different computer architecture

Syad Jul 20, 2023 @ 8:57am

Originally posted by Judge:
To be clear, games I subscribe to on Steam cannot be run on Android?

Steam is a shop you buy games in. Games run either on Android or Windows ( listed in system reqs of each game). A game made for Windows will not run on Android and vice versa. The Steam app works on both because Valve also made Steam for Android. If the developer of a game makes their game for android i don't see why it wouldn't work, which hasn't happen yet because Android is dominated by Google Play, which is where all the games are published. Example

Baldurs Gate 2 for Windows

Baldurs Gate 2 for Android
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beamdog.baldursgateIIenhancededition&hl=en&gl=US

Haruspex Jul 20, 2023 @ 9:01am

Originally posted by Syad:
Steam is a shop you buy games in. Games run either on Android or Windows ( listed in system reqs of each game).

There are no Steam games that run on Android. Steam games run on Windows, Mac, or Linux. The Steam Android app is for managing Steam account stuff and interacting with Steam community and trading features, but you can't download any games on to your Android device with it.

Syad Jul 20, 2023 @ 9:07am

Originally posted by Harusp3x:
Originally posted by Syad:
Steam is a shop you buy games in. Games run either on Android or Windows ( listed in system reqs of each game).

There are no Steam games that run on Android. Steam games run on Windows, Mac, or Linux. The Steam Android app is for managing Steam account stuff and interacting with Steam community and trading features, but you can't download any games on to your Android device with it.

Valve isn't interested, but there is nothing there preventing them from starting... tomorrow with a surprise Steam update.

#10

Haruspex Jul 20, 2023 @ 9:10am

Originally posted by Syad:
Valve isn't interested, but there is nothing there preventing them from starting... tomorrow with a surprise Steam update.

While technically true, it's highly unlikely. I felt the need to say something because the way you said it could mislead some people into thinking that there are Steam games that work on Android today. There are none, and there's no functionality in the Steam android app to facilitate it.

#11

Syad Jul 20, 2023 @ 9:25am

Originally posted by Harusp3x:
While technically true, it's highly unlikely. I felt the need to say something because the way you said it could mislead some people into thinking that there are Steam games that work on Android today. There are none, and there's no functionality in the Steam android app to facilitate it.

Ah, ye, I was just bringing some structure in here, i mean if anyone can find an android game on Steam then the dev made sure it will run on there (an unlock key for google play for example). TR;DR system reqs are key. And of course knowing the specs. Android laptops exists too, and Windows tablets.. It's a mess.

#12

Judge Jul 20, 2023 @ 9:36am

Thanks to everyone for their responses. Yes, I know android is a different architecture and frequently applications are not compatible - not just OS but hardware as well. Depends on the developer - which I expected. Workarounds did exist to set up a Windows proxy in a Linux or MacOS system to run Windows applications - but those were years ago, ran a MS-DOS environment and had glitches.. Again, appreciate the responses.

#13

nullable Jul 20, 2023 @ 10:08am

Originally posted by Syad:
Originally posted by Harusp3x:
While technically true, it's highly unlikely. I felt the need to say something because the way you said it could mislead some people into thinking that there are Steam games that work on Android today. There are none, and there's no functionality in the Steam android app to facilitate it.
Ah, ye, I was just bringing some structure in here, i mean if anyone can find an android game on Steam then the dev made sure it will run on there (an unlock key for google play for example). TR;DR system reqs are key. And of course knowing the specs. Android laptops exists too, and Windows tablets.. It's a mess.

Nohing is stopping a developer from porting their game to multiple platforms. Like there's PC games on Steam that were ported from consoles, or ported to consoles, or phone/tablets. Do I want to play Persona 5 on the PC or on my Switch?

So just because a game appears on Steam and the Google Play store doesn't mean it's the same data and the Steam version will work on Android devices and vice versa. You have to buy the appropriate version for the platform you plan on using it on.

Typically buying one version of the game doesn't unlock all other versions either.

Last edited by nullable; Jul 20, 2023 @ 10:10am

#14