According to new Steam documents, Valve will be launching Steam Cloud Gaming soon with a Beta of Steam Cloud Play.
It will require developers to opt in, and they're required to support Cloud Saves (or another online save method), otherwise gamers will lose their data. Developers will continue to be paid the same way, since users still need to buy the games on Steam.
Before you get too excited though, the documents say the first service connecting with it will be NVIDIA GeForce NOW. For Linux gamers then, it means next to nothing since NVIDIA have been silent on any plans for Linux support with it. However, it's clearly early on and Valve are still building features and adding to their server capacity.
In the FAQ it does state this:
Will there be other cloud gaming services added to Steam Cloud Play?
We may add additional Steam Cloud Gaming services in the future. At that time we would reach out to you to opt your games into the new service.
Quite disappointing for us here of course. We're still somewhat expecting once Valve has tested the waters with this, and built up all the mechanics around Steam to support all of it, that they would launch their own. Don't think Valve would stay reliant on an external service for too long. The curious part is in the "How to sign up" part, which mentions how developers opting into Steam Cloud Gaming will have it "hosted by Valve" with service providers (like NVIDIA) being the additional. So that perhaps lends some credit towards a Valve service.
If we hear any more on it and / or they announced something that works with Linux, we will let you know.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
gradyvuckovic May 28, 2020
Quoting: Patola[...]We already do not own our games, we license them. [...]
I am reading this so often lately. But did you already look up how many games on Steam you DO own?
There's quite a huge list of DRM-free games on Steam. https://steam.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games
Also quite some big titles on this list.
The worrying part about the perception getting spreaded about Steam game ownership is, that people might think that they don't lose anything with cloud gaming, since they already don't own any games anymore (which isn't true as you can see - especially with GoG ofc). But there actually is a loss of ownership when comparing cloud gaming to Steam.
If you might be fine with not owning games is another topic and not the one I intend to discuss in this post.
Quoting: PatolaI wonder if we will eventually be able to get VR through streaming, since Valve is so invested on it now?
Highly doubt it. Streaming, as good as it might be, doesn't fit all genres. That's why Gabe spoke out against streaming many years ago. RTS games or whatever can be played just fine if there's a slight delay. In VR it destroys everything.
Quoting: PatolaI wonder if we will eventually be able to get VR through streaming, since Valve is so invested on it now?
For VR to be bearable for the average person they need a high framerate (I forget what the minimum comfortable level was), but trying to stream, say, 144FPS with current infrastructure is hard to achieve. It's an interesting technical challenge that may require creating of a new data transfer protocol, various new types of hardware,...
Quoting: tmtvlQuoting: PatolaI wonder if we will eventually be able to get VR through streaming, since Valve is so invested on it now?
For VR to be bearable for the average person they need a high framerate (I forget what the minimum comfortable level was), but trying to stream, say, 144FPS with current infrastructure is hard to achieve. It's an interesting technical challenge that may require creating of a new data transfer protocol, various new types of hardware,...
The FPS aren't the problem, but the input delay, If the image is processed at a server far away it needs to reach your home without any delay. If you add just 10ms to what's already there, it might cause problems.
With Stadia I can at least play games that cannot be installed on my system (Linux).
Nevertheless May 28, 2020
Quoting: drlambHowever unlikely I'd die if Google (Stadia) and Valve formed a partnership.
Horrible idea! :O
Quoting: lesssterWhat's the point of Cloud Gaming if you still need a specific OS (Windows) to be able to use it?
Hmm?
Quoting: NeverthelessQuoting: drlambHowever unlikely I'd die if Google (Stadia) and Valve formed a partnership.
Horrible idea! :O
Google getting bored of Stadia and Valve taking the infrastructure, and stable of Linux-native games, off their hands at a knock-down price to make available through Steam wouldn't be a terrible outcome, though.
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