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!

[HikariLight]

Games sold on Steam are not designed to be played on mobile. Steam Link simply let's you stream them. If you want a mobile version of a game go talk to the developers of the game and ask them to make it. Steam is just a store and launcher. Your not the first to ask this.

[diba89]

引用自 HikariLight：

Games sold on Steam are not designed to be played on mobile. Steam Link simply let's you stream them. If you want a mobile version of a game go talk to the developers of the game and ask them to make it. Steam is just a store and launcher.

I would disagree on that. Steam always wanted to be more than a store and launcher. Otherwise we would not have Steam Link, the Steam controller or Steam Deck.

I simply want to discuss if Steam would have any benefit of poking into the mobile market. Emulating is possible, but I guess exagear git shutdown because of legal reasons. But a big player like steam might have a chance to solve those problems.

[Cathulhu]

Both Google and Apple would ban Valve and Steam from their ecosystem as they do not allow direct competition.

And really? Emulating x86 on a smartphone?
Doesn't even work properly on PCs like the ARM based Macbooks.

And x86 emulation is one thing, what about DirectX? Or other dependencies and APIs?

[JUICE]

Doubt Play store or Apple Store would allow a third party app installer. Then comes the question: why would devs add their games to an other third party market when you already got Play Store and Apple Store dominating.

[Fuzzyhawk]

hola

[Stooler]

I almost would say for personal use the steam deck might be something for you. That is all i have to add stay safe and healthy

[Cathulhu]

Well, then you will have to do some really dark magic to make x86 games relying on Direct3D runnning on a smartphone at playable speed.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

引用自 Insomnia1999：

I'm in the same boat. I'd benefit from a steam deck, but I don't have the money for one, even a second hand one. If there was a way I could play steam games on my phone/tablet it would be amazing as I travel a fair bit too and I don't want to stream, nor am I always connected to the same WiFi my pc is connected to (obviously as I travel!) So playing games on my phone/tablet would be great but steamdecks aren't an option for me personally

Remote Play Anywhere works when you are away from home. You don't need to be on the same network.

[SpyNet]

引用自 cSg|mc-Hotsauce：

引用自 Insomnia1999：

I'm in the same boat. I'd benefit from a steam deck, but I don't have the money for one, even a second hand one. If there was a way I could play steam games on my phone/tablet it would be amazing as I travel a fair bit too and I don't want to stream, nor am I always connected to the same WiFi my pc is connected to (obviously as I travel!) So playing games on my phone/tablet would be great but steamdecks aren't an option for me personally

Remote Play Anywhere works when you are away from home. You don't need to be on the same network.

:summercat2023:

[Buba$vabice]

👍🏻💪🏻🔥

[❛❟Licenciado Loaiza♿]

I mean is ambicious u know?

[Thanone]

there IS a port of Portal and Half-life 2 to android, there is a website called Bennet bytes and he goes through the installation and gives links to the download, although you have to own Portal and Half-life 2 to play them. Hope this helps!

[alandron]

he is basically asking for a steam os on ios. Pretty much what valves has done on steam deck (steam os on linux). I think it is completely doable technically, and is totally viable given iphone 15's chip is just as powerful as steamdeck's. But the questions is, if valve wants to do it, it essentially makes iphone a competitor of steam deck

[Cathulhu]

Steam OS is not on Linux, Steam OS is Linux.

That's like asking Apple if they'd allow you to install a different operating system on their device.
Not going to happen.

Apple really likes and is is really proctective of their walled garden ecosystem.

[Thanone]

I would like proof that an iphone 15 is as powerful as a steam deck EX: website or benchmark comparison AND website P.S. I would like a credible source like versus.com or tom's hardware also i agree with @Cathulu Apple is CRAP compared to MANY tech companies although they make good aluminum phone cases but crap batteries. Edit: Another thing he wasn't asking about the Steam client on his phone it was worthwhile pc games on his phone