SteamDB says Valve could be working on a Google Stadia competitor

[Humza]

Why it matters: With Google Stadia going live later this month and Microsoft's xCloud currently in its public preview, the competition for cloud game streaming could soon heat up even more with the addition of another major player: Valve, PC's biggest gaming platform.

Given the massive collection of titles on Steam, now that even EA has decided to make a comeback, Valve's gaming distribution platform certainly isn't short on developer support and would only need them to be legally on-board if it decides to compete in the cloud gaming space.

This indeed is what Steam Database (SteamDB) discovered in a Github release on Valve's partner site code, stating that they (partners) "must agree to the terms in the Steam Cloud Gaming Addendum before continuing," leading many to believe that Valve could be working on a new cloud gaming service for Steam.

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

— Steam Database (@SteamDB) November 6, 2019

The company already has Steam Remote Play, Steam Link Anywhere and an upcoming feature called Remote Play Together, that brings online support to all local multiplayer games, but all of them require a local server (namely your gaming PC) to function.

A 'Steam Cloud Gaming' service could potentially end up being a Google Stadia or Microsoft xCloud competitor, where Valve has its own gaming hardware in data centers that allows players to stream titles from their Steam library onto supported devices (smartphones, tablets, laptops/PCs).

Valve has not made any official announcement regarding Steam Cloud Gaming, but if it does intend to offer such a service, it would need to consider latency concerns (among others), particularly for competitive gaming, which its community (that's slightly more demanding than others) expects to be addressed.

Then again, the company could be looking to expand its playerbase and business, with users looking for a more casual play-anywhere experience that cloud gaming promises, and not be left behind in this space.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/82670-steamdb-valve-could-working-google-stadia-competitor.html

 

[poohbear]

If Stadia and MS's platform are even remotely successful, it would be suicide for Valve NOT to have their own. They have to keep up with the times. Remember when Steam first emerged and all the big publishers were like man get the hell outa here with that nonsense. A few years later and Steam was a force to be reckoned with, a few years more and it became THE distribution platform of choice. Platforms like Stadia are the future, Valve can't be complacent.

 

[m4a4]

I can see a side team working on this for Steam. But there's still no way I'd be paying for it (as I'm not paying an arm and a leg for super fast internet).

Maybe, just maybe, all these game streaming services will force the network infrastructure to get upgraded faster (since reliable low latency internet is a must for streamed real-time games, since they can't be buffered)...

 

[Eric Mozzone]

Yea because Steam nailed in-home streaming with their Steam box.

 

[treetops]

Considering most people have no idea what Google Stadia is and the youth have a strong steam fanboy following... They could surely take the bone out of Googles mouth. Unless maybe Google advertises it on their search engine like they did with Chrome.