Eclectic gamers who own multiple machines running different operating systems must be delighted to find out that Steam In-Home Streaming has just exited beta and allows them now to beam games to every corner of their home.
Streaming is the way to go when it comes to the future of gaming. After all, it enables playing games across platforms and across. On the page detailing the new feature, Valve explains that “When you log into Steam on two computers on the same network, they automatically connect, allowing you to remotely install, launch, and play games as though you were sitting at the remote PC.”
The company also detailed the way In-Home Streaming is supposed to work: “When you play a game using In-Home Streaming, video and audio are sent through your home network from your high-end gaming PC to another device in your home.”
Personally, I dream of a world where you buy the latest games, have them installed on a remote high-end computer, and have the game beamed to your own PC via Internet, regardless of its configuration. Assuming that the subscription would be decent, such a service could bring the end of perpetual upgrades for home consumers. Getting new motherboards, RAM, CPUs and video cards every other year just to play the latest games means spending a lot of money on things that lose value with each passing day.
As Valve explains, this is currently possible only inside one’s home: “System requirements dictate the rig you’ll need to run your game, but with In-Home Streaming they won’t limit where you can play.” Hopefully, in the not so distant future, the rig could be placed somewhere a few hundred kilometers away without affecting the performance.
The developer is also concerned about your storage, but In-Home Streaming solves that problem, as well: “No need to wait for your game to download again when it’s already installed on one of your home computers.”
Seamless playing is also available, meaning that you can move from one device to another and Steam will be able to tell that and stream the game without any glitches. Steam In-Home Streaming is the perfect solution for the ones who like to make changes of scenery while playing games, something that couldn’t have been done until now without moving around with a laptop.
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