Valve would be testing Steam Cloud Gaming, its competitor against Stadia

Google Stadia is launched this November. Google will revolutionize the way we play video games since instead of launching a console, they will have a streaming service with AAA games, in 4K and maximum quality, unlike other services such as PS Now. Although the first was GeForce Now, Stadia looks even better. And so, Valve would also be developing its own competitor called Steam Cloud Gaming.

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Steam Cloud Gaming: first filtering of the rival of Google Stadia

Steam is the largest PC video game platform. Everyone who plays on your computer probably has a Steam account. And if it is confirmed that Valve is working on a streaming service, it could end a stroke with Stadia, GeForce Now and virtually any competitor.

The key to the viability of these services is the catalog. Google is betting on AAA games on its platform, but all of them are already available on Steam. In addition, if we want to play on our PC locally without resorting to online, we have to buy them separately within Steam. And if we buy them inside Steam we can play them on our PC and online, the doubt dissipates. It is very likely to be paid, since maintaining servers and acquiring new ones costs money, although Valve has money to spare in exchange for making more users on the platform who buy games.

Developers will have to allow Valve to use their games on the streaming platform

The first mentions of Steam Cloud Gaming have appeared on GitHub, where there is a line of code called "function SignLatestCloudGamingAddendum (return URL)". This line would show us those game developers and distributors must accept an addendum for their games in addition to the one they have already signed. Thus, this would imply that any Steam game could be available in Steam Cloud Gaming, but only if the developer wants.

It makes perfect sense that the first evidence of the existence of this new service is the fact that developers have to sign new documents so that their games are available on the platform. Once the service has a large catalog of games available and Valve has the servers ready, they will announce the service.

Valve has traditionally opted for streaming, so technology already has it. With Steam Link and Remote Play, we can play our PC games anywhere in our house as long as we are under the same network. In addition, we can also play games that have local multiplayer with our friends through the Remote Play Together feature they launched a month ago.

As we can see, more and more steps are being taken to leave the home network and be able to play remote network games. The system that Remote Play Together uses is similar to the one that Cloud Gaming would use since what it does is use our PC as a host and record the keystrokes our friend makes from his home on his PC based on the signal he receives on his computer. Thus, Cloud Gaming only exchanges our PC for a server.