Steam recently launched the ability to play local multiplayer games online with your friends, and the company could be moving into some more cloud-based gaming services. With both Google and Microsoft investing heavily on their own cloud game streaming service, it’s no surprise to see Steam planning to do the same.
There are barely any details about Steam’s cloud gaming service though. A Twitter account that closely follows changes to Steam recently spotted some code that mentions a “Steam Cloud Gaming” service which could be the company’s game streaming service.
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Valve is working on "Steam Cloud Gaming" according to partner site code update. Partners will need to sign an addendum to their terms.
Could this be a competitor to @GoogleStadia?https://t.co/7AQ9YxCol8
— SteamDB (@SteamDB) November 6, 2019
Steam is obviously yet to announce such a service, but the name is a strong indicator of what the service could be. It seems like Steam might be going for a Google Stadia-like approach where uses would have to buy games on a per-game basis and be able to stream them on their device from Steam’s servers.
As The Verge notes, though, there’s a small chance Steam Cloud Gaming could just be a rebrand of Steam’s existing offerings, so take all of this with a pinch of salt. Still, Steam joining the cloud game streaming service party could be quite major, considering how big Steam is on the PC gaming industry.