Modified BitTorrent client for game/update downloads

[Aya]

For one reason or another, it seems like there's always a problem when downloading things through steam. I wonder if having a seeder/leecher approach to update/product downloads would remove at least HALF of those issues.

No, i'm not talking about game piracy, but rather do what World of Warcraft did for updates (those who already have the newest updates will contribute to the uploading of it to other clients). I guess there could be an opt-in/opt-out mode for users with metered connections, and a possible way to work around this would be to distribute steam points and/or coupons to those who are willing to seed updates for other players.

[Start_Running]

This is already done.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

So, https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamPipe ?

[Spawn of Totoro]

You going to pay me for my bandwidth?

From what I read, Blizzard removed p2p downloads years ago... and when they had them, there were still complaints of it being slow and people on metered connections not liking being forced to upload.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Blizzard/comments/9bfrt3/blizz_using_p2p_for_client_downloads_sucks/

[Judgmental Amaterasu]

I mean if you want to pay for my bandwidth and a little tip on top sure.

[Ettanin]

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/2650881941764955398/

Already discussed once then shut down. BitTorrent is not necessary, Steam's CDN is designed to saturate all consumer-grade internet connections.

BitTorrent won't help against download speed issues by cheapskate ISPs who skimped on peering contracts. Quite contrary, such ISPs tend to throttle P2P downloads.

Even then, P2P downloads are not feasible on the secure side because it cannot be reliably determined whether a peer is legitimately distributing game data (legal issue actually!) without breaking profile privacy settings and using complex peer authentication methods.

Let alone the licensing issues. Publishers are very sensitive about the way their content is distributed. Valve would need the consent and approval of every single one of them.

It's not worth it for Valve. The amount of bandwidth they would save doesn't outweigh the development costs of such a system. Otherwise, it would already be in.

Also, not everyone has an unlimited data plan.