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]

ieshiamadera님이 먼저 게시:

So can I get refund for purchase made here that I thought I could play, but can't? I bought 2 game

You can, if it's been (at the max) 2 days since your purchase, and if you've played less than 30 minutes

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

ieshiamadera님이 먼저 게시:

So can I get refund for purchase made here that I thought I could play, but can't? I bought 2 game

Over 2 weeks ago?

Make a manual ticket.

Find the purchase... https://help.steampowered.com/en/wizard/HelpWithPurchase

Choose "I still have a question..."

Explain the entire issue carefully.

And hope for the best.

[76561199769621329]

I'm in jail bro been in almost 20 year's, just got a phone and am trying to figure stuff out. I have 5g Android phone but no pc or labtop. So just trying to figure out how to get good games

[Thanone]

ieshiamadera님이 먼저 게시:

I'm in jail bro been in almost 20 year's, just got a phone and am trying to figure stuff out. I have 5g Android phone but no pc or labtop. So just trying to figure out how to get good games

Gta 3 is a port on android, but that's the best I got

[[TTW]DJazzi]

In all honesty with the games that were out while you were out 99% of them are in the Google Store right now for very inexpensive most of them are around 5 to $10 at Max that would be your best bet instead of trying to emulate

[76561199769621329]

I tried to buy Max Payne and Google play said that it was made for older version. I have San Andreas and vice but can't get GTA v, or anything else. ???

[Thanone]

ieshiamadera님이 먼저 게시:

I tried to buy Max Payne and Google play said that it was made for older version. I have San Andreas and vice but can't get GTA v, or anything else. ???

You can play half life or portal if you can side-load apps

[76561199769621329]

What does that mean? I ain't trying to act slow but please remember all this is new to me..... what is half life or portal?

[Thanone]

ieshiamadera님이 먼저 게시:

What does that mean? I ain't trying to act slow but please remember all this is new to me..... what is half life or portal?

Side-loading an app is when you add an app that isn't on the Google Play Store, and Half-life is this: https://store.steampowered.com/app/220/HalfLife_2/
And Portal is this: https://store.steampowered.com/app/400/Portal/

[76561199769621329]

If you don't mind can you please give me a step by step on what to do, to get game's. These links look like purchases on here and I don't want the wrong thing? Look into it for me, cuz I only good games like Max Payne or GTA style games. I'm not near a labtop... just have Android. Honestly I would really appreciate it... would mean a lot

[Thanone]

ieshiamadera님이 먼저 게시:

If you don't mind can you please give me a step by step on what to do, to get game's. These links look like purchases on here and I don't want the wrong thing? Look into it for me, cuz I only good games like Max Payne or GTA style games. I'm not near a labtop... just have Android. Honestly I would really appreciate it... would mean a lot

Here's a good explination with the file links: https://www.reddit.com/r/EmulationOnAndroid/comments/o27fxd/comment/h24wx2t/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

[76561199769621329]

Can't lie it just ain't meant to be cuz trying all this is fustrating. Thanks though

[Thanone]

ieshiamadera님이 먼저 게시:

Can't lie it just ain't meant to be cuz trying all this is fustrating. Thanks though

you're welcome!

[76561199781213098]

Helpful, really will help me this info , good luck

[baesengking]

Netboom is an app for mobile also type it in web browser allows you to play your steam library without steam links a PC or console. That's how I been playing only way I can play Tekken 8 aomits possible. Also let's you play the newest games no purchase downside is if you switch games it starts over. Only your dream library is what you can save. 10 bucks a month for 60 hours of game play of your own library. So yes you can play mobile online all that like a PC. Long as your wifi 15mb you good