Now THIS is ̶P̶o̶d̶r̶a̶c̶i̶n̶g̶ Game Streaming - Steam to turn "Local Multiplayer" Global, only requiring one game copy

[rcmaehl]

Source:

WCCFTech

Arstechnica (quote source)

 

Summary:
Steam Developer Aiden Kroll confirmed an upcoming feature teased on the Unity development forums. Local Multiplayer over the Internet, but only requiring one version of the game.
 

Media:

Quotes/Excerpts:

Quote

On Wednesday, Steam sent a...news update to developers about a...new feature coming to Steam as soon as October 21: "Remote Play Together." The feature will transform any "local multiplayer" video game into an online one, and ...other players won't have to buy a copy to join in.  As of press time, the emailed update has been posted on a Unity development forum. The news was later confirmed by Valve developer Alden Kroll as authentic. Valve has yet to otherwise post its own announcement. Once the beta goes live, players can pull up the Steam Overlay (shift + tab on a keyboard) while playing a Steam game with any form of "local multiplayer" support and load their friends list...[and] send a Remote Play Together invite. On a more technical level, the host's computer renders the game in question while also shouldering two other burdens: it must stream its game video to other participants, and it must juggle all incoming buttons and commands from other players. Valve's email promises that this will support a 1080p video signal sent to other players at a 60FPS, though all players must have at least a 10Mbps connection for "a successful low-latency connection."  We've tested upcoming game-streaming services like Microsoft Project xCloud and Google Stadia,...we've noticed everything from near-perfect connections to noticeable, tolerable latency. Can Valve's version possibly keep up, especially when it will ask "host" PCs to juggle game rendering, video streaming, and input translation? Valve's explanatory email says the beta will launch "the week of October 21" for all users of the Steam Client Beta. So long as a shipped Steam game includes a tag for "local co-op," "local multiplayer," or "split-screen," it will automatically be supported. Valve's email offers an assurance in terms of game sales: "We don’t believe it’s feasible to use Remote Play Together to avoid purchasing games on Steam entirely, and like other promotional tools and features, we believe the additional exposure and fun players have will lead to additional revenue and player growth." If that's not comfort enough, developers must contact Valve to opt out of their games automatically appearing in this beta.

My Thoughts:

Now this is REASONABLE game streaming. Users can still own their steam games (although we all know they're really just licenses) but share them via game streaming. Unlike other solutions (Hamachi, etc), each player doesn't have to own their own copy of the game, it's basically like being in the same room. I can honestly see this increasing game sales as people are getting to experience the game without actually buying it through their steam friends along with reviving old games that used to have online multiplayer but are now stuck with local multiplayer. 

[Froody129]

Nice

[Fasauceome]

So, Halo games are coming to steam and they all have local multiplayer, I hope this will work with them too. I would love to chill and play some Halo 2 with my friends in other states

[paddy-stone]

Very good. This would definitely be a benefit to a lot of users IMO. It would certainly encourage PC growth through friends that are more budgetary hindered... you could just play this way on certain games with your friends to stretch that budget a bit further.

[Bananasplit_00]

watch nobody put their local multiplayer game on Steam ever again

 

This is really cool though, love it

[Spotty]

17 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

on the other, how would anti-cheat work...? o_o

I don't think that would be a huge concern for local multiplayer/splitscreen games. It wouldn't be an issue like it is in competitive online or even ranked games like CSGO, PUBG, etc. where you get in lobbies with hackers and it ruins the game for everyone.

[Delicieuxz]

4 hours ago, rcmaehl said:

Now this is REASONABLE game streaming. Users can still own their steam games (although we all know they're really just licenses) but share them via game streaming.

The ownership is still over the games.

 

The license is to use the IP via a copy of it, and a non-revokable (as is the case with all perpetual licenses) license to use the IP means exclusive ownership [2] [3] [4] over an instance of the IP. Property is holding the comprehensive set of rights over a thing. In the case of a perpetual software license, the rights that are held are the comprehensive rights to use the software IP via a non-reproduceable instance of it. The instance cannot be revoked, and the purchaser exclusively has all entitlements over that instance, and so they own that instance.

 

A license to make personal use a software IP in its entirety is one-and-the-same thing as owning a non-reproduceable copy of the IP, and a perpetual license to make personal use the IP is equal to owning an instance.

 

http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=124564&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=5213884

 

EU CoJ ruling:

 

"Moreover, as stated in paragraph 46 above, in a situation such as that at issue in the main proceedings, the copyright holder transfers the right of ownership of the copy of the computer program to his customer."

[rcmaehl]

1 minute ago, huilun02 said:

So hosting multiple instances of one copy of the game and also streaming the video, all from one computer.

The owner/host is going to have his PC bogged down to a halt, and the friends he is 'sharing' the game with are going to have to deal with both latency and video compression.

 

Feature is going to be unusable for vast majority of Steam users, unless they 'share' a game that is easy for both CPU and GPU to run multiple instances.

Maybe for AAA titles but older, retro, and arcade games should have too much of a problem

[Brooksie359]

44 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

So hosting multiple instances of one copy of the game and also streaming the video, all from one computer.

The owner/host is going to have his PC bogged down to a halt, and the friends he is 'sharing' the game with are going to have to deal with both latency and video compression.

 

Feature is going to be unusable for vast majority of Steam users, unless they 'share' a game that is easy for both CPU and GPU to run multiple instances.

Just have one of the new threadripper cpus that are going to come out and also have 2x2080tis. Easy fix. 

[suicidalfranco]

Nice. good job Valve

It's great to see new, useful, features that make you stand out in the marketplace

[That Franc]

This looks like a response to what Parsec has been doing for months now with its "Parties" feature.
 

Spoiler

I mean, it's nice that Valve is doing that, but Parsec for some reason just works better than Valve's streaming, and it works for every app, not just Steam games.