Steam will soon allow you play local-only multiplayer games

Steam

Steam is now working on a way to take local multiplayer online. This option will allow users to play any kind of multiplayer game without the other person needing to be in the same room. This new feature named 'Remote Play Together'.


With the Steam Overlay, Remote Play works by one player inviting a friend to join their local multiplayer game. The host player handles all the processing, while their friends hooked in with their connection, controllers, and microphone. Steam will capture all the visuals, controller and keyboard inputs, and share it with all the players. By combining the data, Steam will basically let the system think that all the players are playing together.


Steam said,

“Your local multiplayer games will soon be improved with automatic support for Remote Play Together on Steam. All local multiplayer, local co-op, and split-screen games will be automatically included in the Remote Play Together beta, which we plan to launch the week of October 21.”

If your friend accepts the invitation to play, they’ll be joined to your system. The computer is responsible for running the game, but the experience is shared with a friend.


This way, even games that were originally designed as local multiplayer or couch co-op titles can function online without any additional software or patches.


According to Valve, this is just a beta feature. This means there could be bugs. Remote Play usually doesn't have problems with high-latency gameplay, but it does require a decently powerful computer, and Valve recommends a wired connection for Remote Play.



Some game genres tend to work better as local multiplayer titles due to latency issues, so it’ll be interesting to see how Remote Play Together handles high ping and slow networks.


If this feature works well, it could lead to renewed interest in local multiplayer as a feature, which would only be a good thing.


Remote Play Together will be available on Steam starting October 21st, as per reports said.








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