Play Steam games on phone without Steam Link

[diba89]

Hello Steam community

this is a feature request for making games in the Steam Library playable on a mobile platform natively, without having to stream it using the Steam Link app. I hope this could start a little discussion about this topic.


I'm a dad of two little kids and I have a lot of work to do. I don't have time to get sucked into a PC monitor for hours anymore, because I'm not available for my responsibilities then. Also often I'm just too tired to sit on the PC in the evening after a long work day, where i already sat on a PC all day. But sitting on the couch, playing on the phone, when my wife is watching her shows on TV is still totally feasible. The Steam Deck would be perfect for my usecase, but it is also really expensive and i don't have the budget to buy such things or the newest games anymore. I heaviliy rely on Steam sales to get some older games i always had an eye on.

So good mobile games would be perfect for me. I don't need to buy another device, because I already have it. I get to play for 15mins or so without any problems and can put it away anytime. But the common mobile games just make me angry. I don't want to watch ads, I don't want to pay real money for in-game currency and I hate wait to play. Also the gameplay is usually so dumb... Its ok, when you have to switch your head off, but there is nothing challenging about it or even a little bit of story to enjoy.

Then I discovered two things: The good games, which are usually ports of PC games (Stardew valley, Dead Cells, KotOR, Titan Quest, GTA, Morrowind for instance) and Steam Link. The good games are paid, so you have to spend about 2-10€ for it, but then you never have to get angry about anything anymore. And with Steam Link the whole Steam library can be streamed on the phone and the touchscreen can be used as input device. Both things work great! But Steam Link has a major disadvantage: You have to be around a capable PC if you don't plan to pay much for a mobile data plan. And it also means i have to possess a PC capable of playing games, which becomes more and more unaffordable looking at the price of graphic chips. Also you have to deal with all those Wake-On-Lan settings which makes it a bit inconvinient. And the problem with the ported PC games is, that my favorite games are not ported and will probably never be ported because of several reasons.

My conclusion is, the phone itself or the touch input is not the problem. Mobile games could be great and a lot of fun. I played city builders and role playing games made for PC with the touchscreen and this has some possibilities which are sometimes even better than the original keyboard + mouse input. The problem is, the phone was never considered a serious gaming device, maybe because of all that garbage floating around in the app stores and of course the poor performance compared to consoles and PC. The mobile market seemes to be very different from the PC market. Sure companys can make a lot of money relying on In-App-Purchases. But with that monetization model they scare players like me away. And i guess im not the only one in this situation.

Now comes the interesting part: Why can we not make regular PC games from the Steam library playable on iOS and Android? Emulators like Exagear and the Steam OS already showed it is possible to play games which are made for PC on a device which is not a PC without having to make a real port. There are already gaming smartphones, like the ASUS ROG phone, or the Lenovo Legion phone, but right now there are no serious games what they could be used for. In this gap Steam could have its own market. Mobile players would get some real games finally and could use the configuration possibilities for touch control already provided by the Steam Link app. Game developers would not have to port games to mobile anymore and could be bound more to Steam when it comes to support mobile platforms.

The benefitical part for Steam is they could make their own ecosystem for mobile gaming which no one else has yet. If there are any players in a situation like me that want to play some better games than the ones in the app stores, they will surely get to use Steam. Maybe even a dedicated Steam phone is possible? Netflix already has an agreement with Google how to distribute their games. It is necessary to buy a game on the app store but you need a Netflix account in order to play it. I guess the costs will be spilt into the price you have to pay in the app store and the monthly fee, which already goes to Netflix. I don't know how a model with Google and Steam could work. I guess Google will not allow an alternative distribution platform besides its app store, but maybe there could be worked something out. I would even pay twice for a game, one time for PC and a second time if i want to play it on my phone.

I know this is quite lenghtly and not the usual support request for Steam. I also don't expect to get a "yes" or "no" to this idea here, but i would be glad, if this idea might be taken into consideration.

Best regards!

[Thanone]

Publicado originalmente por TTWDJazzi:

So, it's been a while since the last post on this topic. Has any new developments been heard of or found? I personally use Gforce now for mobile gaming on a G fold 4 n 5. Works incredible, but like many on here not pleased with the limited amount of games they offer compared to my library. The tech is now here to allow a monthly fee service from steam to play our library... j/s. The market, tech, demand are waiting....

no, other than bad news... cassia was cancelled also, paying to play the games you already bought is almost pointless

[diba89]

Publicado originalmente por TTWDJazzi:

So, it's been a while since the last post on this topic. Has any new developments been heard of or found? I personally use Gforce now for mobile gaming on a G fold 4 n 5. Works incredible, but like many on here not pleased with the limited amount of games they offer compared to my library. The tech is now here to allow a monthly fee service from steam to play our library... j/s. The market, tech, demand are waiting....

I will try to summarize.

It's totally possible to emulate windows games on an android phone. The most convenient option is Winlator: https://github.com/brunodev85/winlator

It let me play games up to 2010 release date on my snapdragon 888 SoC at like 20-30fps. Some games work better, some worse.

But: it does not support Steam. I started to buy my older games in GOG in order to run them in Winlator.

Here is a subreddit where this topic is discussed: https://www.reddit.com/r/EmulationOnAndroid/s/Hzexss6QeO

Still no activity from Valve here, from what I heard. For me it's a missed opportunity. Winlator shows it's definitely possible to let Windows games run on Android. Including the Steam Deck, this would result in already 3 platforms where Valve could distribute games for. But I don't know how Google would react if Valve would try do get involved here. Steam is a bigger player than some solo dev and a niche subreddit.

[[TTW]DJazzi]

Publicado originalmente por diba89:

Publicado originalmente por TTWDJazzi:

So, it's been a while since the last post on this topic. Has any new developments been heard of or found? I personally use Gforce now for mobile gaming on a G fold 4 n 5. Works incredible, but like many on here not pleased with the limited amount of games they offer compared to my library. The tech is now here to allow a monthly fee service from steam to play our library... j/s. The market, tech, demand are waiting....

I will try to summarize.

It's totally possible to emulate windows games on an android phone. The most convenient option is Winlator: https://github.com/brunodev85/winlator

It let me play games up to 2010 release date on my snapdragon 888 SoC at like 20-30fps. Some games work better, some worse.

But: it does not support Steam. I started to buy my older games in GOG in order to run them in Winlator.

Here is a subreddit where this topic is discussed: https://www.reddit.com/r/EmulationOnAndroid/s/Hzexss6QeO

Ya, I read through the rest of the posts before making mine. Thays why Im specifically asking about steam and not the other 1s....

[diba89]

I edited my post. Steam still not possible

[Ionut Catalin Frasineanu]

Steam deck is your solution regarding your request. Enjoy!

[[TTW]DJazzi]

Publicado originalmente por Ionut Catalin Frasineanu:

Steam deck is your solution regarding your request. Enjoy!

Ya, no. I already own a switch, no need for another 1. Im talking about pc gaming on cell through streaming services. There is, at this time, 0 reason that steam hasnt. As other services link with steam for remote play, why is there no Steam (itself) remote play app? I spend $10 a month for a handfull of my games on GForce, Id GLADLY pay$15 to steam for the whole thing.

[kivah]

interesting

[Dante REDGROOVE]

Dude! I'm totally with you on this... I have one of those portable game gear thing you can use to play games old as dust... but not any of those in the steam library : no matter how much graphically unimpressive they are.

[76561199472472758]

Publicado originalmente por Luigi:

"Make Gaming Great Again"

pim muigi

[Anonymous Helper]

Publicado originalmente por TTWDJazzi:

Publicado originalmente por Ionut Catalin Frasineanu:

Steam deck is your solution regarding your request. Enjoy!

Ya, no. I already own a switch, no need for another 1. Im talking about pc gaming on cell through streaming services. There is, at this time, 0 reason that steam hasnt. As other services link with steam for remote play, why is there no Steam (itself) remote play app? I spend $10 a month for a handfull of my games on GForce, Id GLADLY pay$15 to steam for the whole thing.

Valve isn't interested offering subscription service but is welcoming anyone else offering such services on Steam like EA already does. They are also not interested in investing Cloud Gaming and happy to let Nvidia provide the service with GeForce NOW as the games will still need to be bought from Steam.

Valve's next project will probably be Steam Deck 2 as they have zero interest in mobile market.

[Ratconned]

Publicado originalmente por diba89:

Hello Steam community

this is a feature request for making games in the Steam Library playable on a mobile platform natively, without having to stream it using the Steam Link app. I hope this could start a little discussion about this topic.


I'm a dad of two little kids and I have a lot of work to do. I don't have time to get sucked into a PC monitor for hours anymore, because I'm not available for my responsibilities then. Also often I'm just too tired to sit on the PC in the evening after a long work day, where i already sat on a PC all day. But sitting on the couch, playing on the phone, when my wife is watching her shows on TV is still totally feasible. The Steam Deck would be perfect for my usecase, but it is also really expensive and i don't have the budget to buy such things or the newest games anymore. I heaviliy rely on Steam sales to get some older games i always had an eye on.

So good mobile games would be perfect for me. I don't need to buy another device, because I already have it. I get to play for 15mins or so without any problems and can put it away anytime. But the common mobile games just make me angry. I don't want to watch ads, I don't want to pay real money for in-game currency and I hate wait to play. Also the gameplay is usually so dumb... Its ok, when you have to switch your head off, but there is nothing challenging about it or even a little bit of story to enjoy.

Then I discovered two things: The good games, which are usually ports of PC games (Stardew valley, Dead Cells, KotOR, Titan Quest, GTA, Morrowind for instance) and Steam Link. The good games are paid, so you have to spend about 2-10€ for it, but then you never have to get angry about anything anymore. And with Steam Link the whole Steam library can be streamed on the phone and the touchscreen can be used as input device. Both things work great! But Steam Link has a major disadvantage: You have to be around a capable PC if you don't plan to pay much for a mobile data plan. And it also means i have to possess a PC capable of playing games, which becomes more and more unaffordable looking at the price of graphic chips. Also you have to deal with all those Wake-On-Lan settings which makes it a bit inconvinient. And the problem with the ported PC games is, that my favorite games are not ported and will probably never be ported because of several reasons.

My conclusion is, the phone itself or the touch input is not the problem. Mobile games could be great and a lot of fun. I played city builders and role playing games made for PC with the touchscreen and this has some possibilities which are sometimes even better than the original keyboard + mouse input. The problem is, the phone was never considered a serious gaming device, maybe because of all that garbage floating around in the app stores and of course the poor performance compared to consoles and PC. The mobile market seemes to be very different from the PC market. Sure companys can make a lot of money relying on In-App-Purchases. But with that monetization model they scare players like me away. And i guess im not the only one in this situation.

Now comes the interesting part: Why can we not make regular PC games from the Steam library playable on iOS and Android? Emulators like Exagear and the Steam OS already showed it is possible to play games which are made for PC on a device which is not a PC without having to make a real port. There are already gaming smartphones, like the ASUS ROG phone, or the Lenovo Legion phone, but right now there are no serious games what they could be used for. In this gap Steam could have its own market. Mobile players would get some real games finally and could use the configuration possibilities for touch control already provided by the Steam Link app. Game developers would not have to port games to mobile anymore and could be bound more to Steam when it comes to support mobile platforms.

The benefitical part for Steam is they could make their own ecosystem for mobile gaming which no one else has yet. If there are any players in a situation like me that want to play some better games than the ones in the app stores, they will surely get to use Steam. Maybe even a dedicated Steam phone is possible? Netflix already has an agreement with Google how to distribute their games. It is necessary to buy a game on the app store but you need a Netflix account in order to play it. I guess the costs will be spilt into the price you have to pay in the app store and the monthly fee, which already goes to Netflix. I don't know how a model with Google and Steam could work. I guess Google will not allow an alternative distribution platform besides its app store, but maybe there could be worked something out. I would even pay twice for a game, one time for PC and a second time if i want to play it on my phone.

I know this is quite lenghtly and not the usual support request for Steam. I also don't expect to get a "yes" or "no" to this idea here, but i would be glad, if this idea might be taken into consideration.

Best regards!

This is not a lengthy and unusual support request, it is a ridiculous one. Because steam would have to manually make applications for each and every game which exists on the store.

Steam does not even patch any of its (non-valve) games on store because it did not make them, it does not maintain them. You see entire developer entities working for months to maintain one game each? That is the level of effort it takes for one game.

It is not 'natively' but steam would have to make something like proton. Now let's be honest here, steam didn't create proton from scratch, they adopted an existing software (wine) which was made on a fully open operating system (linux) as free software (as in free to modify and distribute). You state one of these 3 and apple and google will laugh their asses off because they've spent years destroying and limiting what has been available to the general userbase on their platforms intentionally and have nurtured bases of fanatics who will defend them to the end of the world. The moment someone tries to do something like proton, there will be legal trouble like nothing else to, if they cannot manage to shut it down, hinder and obstruct completely.

It is impossible on all fronts. A better understanding of technology would help in this regard (I was bad too but one can always learn and I did). On phone emulation may very well be the best solution and that is not legally intended. The second option is streaming like steam link, which is inefficient (more so than emulation). Other than this, there's the app store and the apps which developers have natively made for android—many of which are pc games on steam the same makers have remade for android.

[Ratconned]

Publicado originalmente por Anonymous Helper:

Valve isn't interested offering subscription service but is welcoming anyone else offering such services on Steam like EA already does. They are also not interested in investing Cloud Gaming and happy to let Nvidia provide the service with GeForce NOW as the games will still need to be bought from Steam.

Valve's next project will probably be Steam Deck 2 as they have zero interest in mobile market.

Valve's position is a lot shakier than this implies at the moment. There is a hint of incohesiveness. None of this is absolute and it could change at any time.

[Ratconned]

Publicado originalmente por TTWDJazzi:

Publicado originalmente por Ionut Catalin Frasineanu:

Steam deck is your solution regarding your request. Enjoy!

Ya, no. I already own a switch, no need for another 1. Im talking about pc gaming on cell through streaming services. There is, at this time, 0 reason that steam hasnt. As other services link with steam for remote play, why is there no Steam (itself) remote play app? I spend $10 a month for a handfull of my games on GForce, Id GLADLY pay$15 to steam for the whole thing.

0 reason

There are actually. It takes time, money, effort and expertise. If no one wants to put in the effort is won't work well. If they do not manage to get proper expertise it won't work well.

The investment will be very high. Nvidia will use its own GPUs and steam will have to buy theirs. You can be sure steam will not be able to procure them at cost price so unless they're feeling generous (willing to do this with heavy losses) you better be willing to shell out a lot more per month. Will it work? If a whole army of people like you shell out more money than is necessary to stream games of all things then yes. But there is a reason fanatics always try to rope in other people to their 'cause'. They're never enough on their own.

Get enough people to such a 'cause' and valve will probably, indeed, put time in such an effort. Because right now there's every reason not to do it.

[[TTW]DJazzi]

Okay obviously you guys have no idea what you're talking about I am a registered developer for Google I've been doing it works since the x86 years went 386 is for prevalent and homes so when I tell you that the small amount of coating that they will need to do to they're already remote access app is all that's needed to access their servers every one of you guys arguments is null and void the only reason the steam deck is there and everybody's pushing it is because that's their major money grab if you get rid of the steam deck then doing a service like and videos is 1,000% possible 1,000% feasible and it all actuality doable today as we can remote access our PCS if they just reroute it from our PCS to their actual servers this would not be a problem so stop

[Ratconned]

Publicado originalmente por TTWDJazzi:

I am a registered developer for Google

♥♥♥♥ product. Typical expected response from one working there. As in, you don't know an effing thing.

Deck is not a major money grab. It is a lot more effort and lot less profitable than anything google craps out. Wine, the basis for steam deck, is also made by people who do not get paid for the job and rely on donations mostly (and, again, have managed to make something far more practical than anything google or its competitor craps out).