Valve's New 'Steam Link Anywhere' Service Streams PC Games to Mobile Devices, Excluding Apple's

[MacRumors]

Valve today announced an expansion of its game-streaming app Steam Link, now named Steam Link Anywhere (via The Verge).

The original Steam Link app let users stream PC games on Steam to a mobile device within their home, but Steam Link Anywhere lets users stream games from their PC to any compatible device with internet service, excluding Apple devices.

Apple rejected the original Steam Link app due to "business conflicts," while the app went on to see a release on Android.

The upgraded Steam Link Anywhere will now only be available on Android, Raspberry Pi, and Steam Link hardware, starting today as an early beta. Valve says that players will need a good upload connection for the host computer and a good network connection for the mobile device.

Following Apple's rejection last year, Valve pointed out that there are many other remote access-style apps that are allowed in the App Store, so it was unclear why Apple was blocking Valve's app. Since that time, Sony has released its own game streaming app, allowing PS4 owners to stream and control games on their iPhone or iPad, from anywhere with a Wi-Fi connection.

Similarly, Microsoft this week has detailed work on its Project xCloud game streaming initiative. The service aims to provide Xbox owners a chance to stream their favorite games from the console to a mobile device, although iOS devices haven't been mentioned yet. "True console-quality gaming will become available on mobile devices," Microsoft CVP of Gaming Cloud, Kareem Choudhry, said. "Providing the 2 billion-plus gamers around the world a new gateway to previously console- and PC-exclusive content."

Article Link: Valve's New 'Steam Link Anywhere' Service Streams PC Games to Mobile Devices, Excluding Apple's

 

[now i see it]

Steam Link Almost Anywhere

 

[Reapro]

Great job, Tim Apple. It's just sad that it isn't available.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Sweet!

More wins here on “Team Apple”!

It’s awesome to continually get excluded from cool stuff due to the company leadership at Apple

 

[hlfway2anywhere]

I hope everyone starts pulling out of Apple. They need a wake up call.

 

[Icaras]

Stupid, Apple. Just stupid.

I love Apple but loosen up a bit here please.

 

[atomic.flip]

How is this Apple related if we already know Apple rejected the app and the new service won’t be on Apple at all?

 

[farewelwilliams]

Interesting how Valve timed this with Spotify's complaint about the App Store.

 

[Nunyabinez]

The reason for rejection was that the app also lets you buy your games on it without giving Apple a cut. Steam could put it on iDevices if they wanted to, by disabling the ability to buy in the app, but they correctly evaluated the size of the market and determined that it wasn't really worth their time or effort.

I question how useful this is anyway. I have a powerhouse PC and have the original Steam Link hardware that lets me play on my TV using a controller. It works great for those games that are controller oriented, but most of the really good games need a mouse and keyboard. You need a controller for your phone. I'm trying to imagine why I would want to play on my 5" screen instead of my 27" 4K monitor.

This really is an app to let you stream your game to TVs or less powerful computers that couldn't handle the actual graphics processing. The phone part is a gimmick.

 

[macfacts]

More anticompetitive behavior from Tim Apple

 

[velcrovan]

I question how useful this is anyway. [...] I'm trying to imagine why I would want to play on my 5" screen instead of my 27" 4K monitor.

People probably don't care about the phone part, but I am mad as heck that they are blocking this on the Apple TV as well. That was originally the big deal as far as this app goes.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/1...olls-out-new-steam-link-beta-for-ios-apple-tv

 

[Nunyabinez]

People probably don't care about the phone part, but I am mad as heck that they are blocking this on the Apple TV as well. That was originally the big deal as far as this app goes.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/1...olls-out-new-steam-link-beta-for-ios-apple-tv

Yeah, that part sucks. They discontinued their hardware and I was lucky enough to buy two when they were closing them out.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Apple is somehow finding ways to do things in every single product category to make me never want to be a customer again.

It’s intensely frustrating.

 

[rom3o]

Why didn’t Apple reject Sony’s Remote Play App for the same reasons? Or is the PS Store limited so that you can’t buy games while connected via the iOS app?

 

[inhalexhale1]

How is this Apple related if we already know Apple rejected the app and the new service won’t be on Apple at all?

Because maybe we already know, but they don’t.

 

[Stevez67]

Wow 14 comments. The market for the Steam App on Apple products must be HUGE (sarcasm).

 

[vh1]

Steam could put it on iDevices if they wanted to, by disabling the ability to buy in the app.

Maybe you didn't keep up, but Valve did do exactly that in testflight builds.

I question how useful this is anyway. I have a powerhouse PC and have the original Steam Link hardware that lets me play on my TV using a controller. It works great for those games that are controller oriented, but most of the really good games need a mouse and keyboard. You need a controller for your phone. I'm trying to imagine why I would want to play on my 5" screen instead of my 27" 4K monitor.

There's so much subjective stuff here:

- I primarily play on PC, and rarely use mouse + keyboard.
- You don't need a controller for your phone, at least on Android. And you're not going to get a good controller for iOS, due to MFi not supporting standard controller layouts of the past ... oh wow 22 years.
- There are larger iOS devices than your 5" phone.

This really is an app to let you stream your game to TVs or less powerful computers that couldn't handle the actual graphics processing.

Not really sure what you're getting at here. I'd much rather have an app on a low power device than a beast of a computer in every room.

 

[farewelwilliams]

Why didn’t Apple reject Sony’s Remote Play App for the same reasons? Or is the PS Store limited so that you can’t buy games while connection via the iOS app?

I bought a game through the app.

My guess is, Valve put in a native UI for buying games instead of serving the store page through the remote viewer.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Wow 14 comments. The market for the Steam App on Apple products must be HUGE (sarcasm).

The article has only been up for like an hour hasn’t it?
[doublepost=1552594362][/doublepost]

I bought a game through the app.

My guess is, Valve put in a native UI for buying games instead of serving the store page through the remote viewer.

Apple needs to fix this problem on their end.

They deserve very little if any cut of games sales that are not being vetted by them or hosted on their servers. I don’t think they deserve nothing but they sure as heck don’t deserve 30%

 

[vh1]

I bought a game through the app.

My guess is, Valve put in a native UI for buying games instead of serving the store page through the remote viewer.

Pretty sure Valve wasn't doing that at all, since they updated the client you run on your computer to support hiding it on iOS.

Also yeah, this whole PS4 thing is bizarre. There's an icon for the store right in the first image: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ps4-remote-play/id1436192460?mt=8

 

[rtomyj]

I'm getting really tired of of this anticompetitive, abusive and ultimately anti-consumer behaviour of Apple. Maybe it really is time for governments to start address these nasty practices of large tech giants (all of them).

If you really cared you’d switch away from Apple. These anti competitive memes are stupid. No one forces users to use Apple products. No one forces devs to use Apple Frameworks and API’s. No one forces companies to make native applications.

If you really think making a secure robust OS and an API for developers is easy. Go for it, make an ecosystem. The market can benefit with more than two mobile OS’s. My guess is you don’t know what an API is (don’t take offense, I’m not calling you stupid). Don’t let the media tell you how to think.

If Apple didn’t make a cut they wouldn’t bother improving and making new API’s/Frameworks. The talented engineers wouldn’t make money. Think now if someone came to you and said, “yea I want your service for free because I’m entitled to it”. That’s what’s going on here.

 

[turbineseaplane]

If Apple didn’t make a cut

I don’t disagree that Apple should take a cut but the same 30% they take from developers who are distributing the actual software on their platform using their servers should not apply to all game sales for a major corporation who is hosting and delivering and supporting everything themselves anyhow

 

[2010mini]

Sometimes Apple is its own worst enemy

 

[Madmic23]

The reason for rejection was that the app also lets you buy your games on it without giving Apple a cut.

So if I use a remote desktop app on my iPad and use a web browser on my PC to buy a game, should Apple get a 30% cut? Because that’s basically the same thing. And the answer is no, because that doesn’t make any sense.

 

[friedmud]

I don’t disagree that Apple should take a cut but the same 30% they take from developers who are distributing the actual software on their platform using their servers should not apply to all game sales for a major corporation who is hosting and delivering and supporting everything themselves anyhow

I don't totally disagree - but it's tricky.

If Apple allowed this... then every game company in the world would simply release a "store" app for free on the App Store that allowed you to buy their games within it. Sure: they would have to do the charging and hosting, etc... but they could bipass the "Apple Tax".

What an utter, absolute, crazy mess that would be. I wouldn't want to use an ecosystem like that...