Mobile app was created almost 3 years ago. Steam Link
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That's true, unless it's a windows device, and many games are being ported from mobile to steam, so the mobile version is already available.
Overall it just seems like there could be a stripped down version of windows, made into an app, and a hardware detector to flag which games you'll be able to play.
I've read about people having success with hacked versions of windows, but i'm a bit leary of installing it on my phone. Guess i'll do some more reading about it...
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many games are being ported from mobile to steam
Then just buy them on phone and play it from there? I mean, why steam should create a complicated system that lets you do that " there could be a stripped down version of windows, made into an app, and a hardware detector to flag which games you'll be able to play." It is not even something that can be done with steam only.
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Overall it just seems like there could be a stripped down version of windows, made into an app
lol.
Fun fact: Windows is not open-source. A company can't just come and tamper with it and then resell it.
and a hardware detector to flag which games you'll be able to play.
The problem is, phones usually use different processors than windows machines use, so it's kinda impossible to install windows on phones.
Also, Microsoft sold phones with windows for some time and they weren't very successful, you can google "Windows phone" if you are interested in that.
I've read about people having success with hacked versions of windows, but i'm a bit leary of installing it on my phone. Guess i'll do some more reading about it...
Uhhh... you can be successful with installing windows on your phone, but I think that there will be many problems with drivers as they aren't made for the components phones use (also the performance will be very limited).
TL;DR:
If you want to play PC (only) games on smartphone without a pc, the only really possible option is to pay for some cloud gaming service and have a fast enough internet connection, otherwise... play smartphone ports I guess?
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Well, then you will need a smartphone either based on x86 cpu, or smartphone ten times more powerful than your PC. In both cases such smartphone will be very expensive (like, MUCH more expensive than your PC), will consume a lot of energy (do you ready to recharge it every hour?) and you will most probably won't even agree to buy it. With modern smartphones? Sure, it's possible, if you are ready to see 1 FPS every 10 minutes or so (so, like 0.002 FPS or less). But since not many people want this kind of gaming - Valve don't bother about doing that.
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Looks like you don't want an app. You want a service.
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Well.. I dont think a today's phone could handle heavy games by itself either way, that's why Steam Link exists
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+1
The most you can do is play games with very low spec and it will be more resource heavy and drain your battery faster than using a video to stream it, i think
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(sorry for my English, but) That's basically impossible (or at least very hard to do). x86 (in PC) and ARM (in Phones) processors have different architecture, and to run PC game on Phone it must be developed to work on targeted type of processors from the start. Valve can't do this because they dont own source code for games in Steam. And it's fully for developers of the game to deside if they want to publish their game on mobiles.
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there is a way to play windowed games on mobile, i think you need to install something sommething, to connect your windows pc to mobile and play it in mobile.
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There's been rumors for a while that Valve has been working on an in-house cloud gaming/streaming service. Maybe that'll come to fruition sometime and you won't have to rely on things like GeForce Now inbetween.
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you mean HL2: Episode 2 - part 2 and HL Alyx: Episode 1 (prologue)
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I forever be having to install a hacked version of windows, that I can run steam from?
You don't have to. You can buy windows license. You can install free linux and use steam there just as well. Or, you can just not play games on PC, if that's such a hassle. Don't try to justify your greed with some stupid excuses.
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But can you actually download the windows installation files legally ?
You can "legally" use the windows without activating, but don't you need to have some kind of older installation disc or files you have received previously ?
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Of course you can download it legally.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO
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Not wanting to throw money at the quasi-monopoly that Micro$oft has is greed? You think Bill Gates deserves more money to decide humanity's future, while destroying people's health and agriculture for profit? (I bought a Win8 license for 60€ btw, not proud of it)
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Yes, it is. If you believe microsoft is bad and you don't want to support it with your money - it's okay. Just don't use it's products then. But if you use it and don't pay for it - it means you consider it as good and useful, and just a greedy jerk.
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If there was fair competition and government regulation, I would agree, but that is not the case. Like I said, it's a monopoly. If M$ wouldn't have been allowed to abuse their power to prevent developers from developing for Linux, we would have a much different picture today.
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Fair competition is exact opposite of government regulation. which one of those you really want?
And no, it's not a monopoly. There is a linux, and it's free. And if we are talking about steam here - most games will work just fine on linux, since steam uses a proper emulator for the ones that don't support linux natively. Would you please stop those poor excuses?
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No regulation = Fair competition? HAHAHA! Yeah we can see how wonderfully it works in the US, where there's almost no regulation on the big companies. Good joke. Actually, they're the ones regulating the government, which is lovely.
Last time I tried Steam games on Linux there were some problems, maybe it's better now, I'll try it soon.
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You can laugh all you want, but that's how it is. You really believe that it's unfair competition that people don't choose linux even when it's FREE?! You need to be forced by the government to use linux, that would be fair? It is my turn to laugh at you then.
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People won't use linux if developers don't target it, and they don't because M$ bribes them to not do it. And in a world where marketing works, the people's choices aren't based on rationality, not as long as the rich control the media. And when people have almost no control over the govt (like in the US) there will be no regulations on the media and powerful corporations, which is necessary for a functioning democracy, and by extension the market.
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because M$ bribes them to not do it.
Where can I get my part of bribe then? Now you are just being ridiculous.
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LOL just google "earth is flat" and you'll get plenty of hits.
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get your tinfoil hats here, only 50 bucks and microsoft wont be able to control you and the evil overlord Bill Gates wont be able to infuse your brain with vaccines to believe mars landing was fake. OPEN YOUR EYES PEOPLE
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Not wanting to throw money at the quasi-monopoly that Micro$oft has is greed?
It's okay to not want that. It's okay to not buy it. It's not okay to use it nonetheless.
Is only Microsoft to blame that everyone uses Windows? Is Facebook to blame for everyone using WA? I'm not saying they are not to blame for establishing a monopoly, using tricks to stay there, eradicating competitors etc. But it's also responsibility of users/customers to not let that happen by using alternatives.
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Well, I'd say it should be the government's responsibility to prevent companies from abusing power to establish a monopoly. But when the people aren't in control of the government obviously that won't work. It's kind of a vicious circle, but lets not get into politics... I already feel bad for bringing this up here xD
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"Ask not what your country can do for you .. " (scnr)
I agree that governments have to regulate if it gets out of hand, but it's easier when it's a slow process (by market expansion) and here (Germany) that has happened several times in the past.
The big tech companies became very important very fast and it's only partially by buying competitors. Politicians have slept there for too long and now they could only smash them (but can easily be blackmailed regarding loss of jobs and technical progress vs rest of the world). It's also because of people using the most popular software. There are reasons for it like common contacts, drivers, interfaces, games. But it won't get better, if noone steps up and starts the change.
P.S. It's okay for me to discuss politics, it's just about tone and not getting personal. :)
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lol, decides humans future..... one of those "QAnon" "Querdenker"
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I'm kind of wondering what types of games where you planning to play on windows tablet ? Even so on windows phone....
Even laptops have very limited performance because they are very limited by space. Phones and tablets being even smaller - I doubt there are many that could run any modern game.. I mean if you are playing very simplistic 2D games then maybe... I am really curious what kind of games you where hoping to play on tablet and what are some stats on your tablet.
Because Steam Link at this stage is the best possible solution. If you have capable PC that can run games then your other device only needs to use internet. I even use my 1k worth work laptop through Steam Link as it's hardly capable of running modern games due to the fact it uses integrated GPU.. I'm still baffled by the fact how you envisioned phone and/or tablet actually running anything on it's hardware.
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just get Shadow or GeForce Now.... i am using both and it works like a charm
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Some people misunderstand the question, think that you're asking "Why can't I play RDR2 on my phone?" and your question seems stupid to them.
But IIUC, you're actually asking "why do I need to pay for the same game twice, once for Steam and second time for mobile"?
Which is a good question, and has many different answers.
One way to look at it is compare it with consoles. If you have a game on PC, and want to play it on Xbox/PS, you will need to buy again on that platform. That's the common practice.
Another way to look at it is: high end smartphone has a better CPU than PCs had 5-6 years ago. So why can't it play PC games?
The short answer is in theory it can - but in practice PC games are made for PC CPU (x86) and PC OS (Windows), and not for mobile CPU (ARM) and mobile OS (iOS/Android)
2.a. So can a mobile CPU run a PC game?
Speed wise - Almost always yes.
Power-wise - Well PC is connected to a wall power socket, and a phone runs on a battery. PC CPU has a dedicated GPU card, phones have at most a GPU chip. PC CPUs & GPUs have dedicated cooling (each), phones mostly have passive cooling (at best) shared between all the parts.
So phone trying to run a high-end PC game will both drain the battery extremely fast, and will overheat and slow down rather quickly.
But there are nowadays many indie games that don't require that much resources. And many games available in (identical) PC & mobile version.
2.b. So can a mobile OS run a PC game?
Well, no. but.. maybe?
PC games are made for Microsoft Windows & Microsoft DirectX.
However, Steam now supports both Mac & Linux operating systems (at least for some games), which means theoretically some day we may see Steam supporting Android or iOS.
But not yet...
3.c. So maybe a phone can run Windows / MacOS / Linux?
Well there used to be phones that ran a mobile version of Windows 7 in the early 2010s, but they were a bust, and no one makes them or their OS anymore.
MacOS - not a chance.
Linux - Well there are phones running Linux. I'm pretty sure you can even install Linux on most modern Android phones, and play Steam Linux games there. So that's one option.
There are however tablets running Windows (Microsoft Surface being the most famous) which before the release of Steam for Android/iOS not long ago, were the only way to stream Steam game from a PC to a tablet.
But again, nowadays there is Steam for Android/iOS, so you can stream games from your PC to any mobile/tablet device.
But these tablets (or a cheap laptop) is another option to play Steam/PC games on the go.
In conclusion:
There are some options... but they all cost money. A lot of it.
So if your aim is to pay less, the cheapest option by far is to pay twice for the same games (once on PC and once on mobile).
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"why do I need to pay for the same game twice"
because it's not the same game.
It's not like you just switch the button to port the game to mobile.
Most of the time another studio works on the port and sometimes even the publisher is another person.
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Sometimes.
For example it's clear that RDR2 for PC is a game made from scratch for PC using the original resources and functionality.
On the other hand, Unity game engine allows to create multiplatform games. You create the game once, and with a click of a button get a Windows version, Linux version, iOS version or an Android version.
Zero effort is involved.
So in some cases porting a game to mobile is indeed a switch of a button.
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in 99.9% even an unity game will need to get some changes.
The ui, the controlls, the options...
Yes you can compile it but to work with it you need to change stuff.
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Why the hell do people want to play games on their mobile, with a small screen, no keyboard or joystick.
If you want portable get something like that. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/aya-neo-world-s-first-7nm-handheld-gaming-device--2
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Depends on the game. There are tons of games I see on steam that i'm not interested in, as i've played similar games on mobile. Or games that are mainly puzzles or visual novels, that are perfect for playing when say sitting in a waiting room or waiting in line.
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To be fair, only a small percentage of the games available on Steam have a 1:1 port to mobile, and those aren't necessarily published by the same company even if the devs are the same. So probably Valve doesn't see the point on expanding into selling mobile games.
However, although very rare, some games on Steam do offer a free mobile version included in some way with your purchase of the PC version. Either through a redeemable code for another store, an apk installer for Android included with the game's files, or some other method.
Running PC games on mobile phones is a completely different story, in short you can't, reason being major differences in architecture (X86 vs arm). The exception being that some titles (mainly old stuff) can be emulated/translated, either through DOS emulation, x86 emulation, Windows compatibility layer (maybe, don't really know if someone ported wine or proton to Android), or engine specific ports (Doom source ports, Scumm, etc).
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You can't run Windows on an Android phone, you can maybe run an older version inside a virtual machine but it probably won't be good enough for playing games.
I suppose that your tablet has an x86 architecture and that's why you can run some games on it, but almost all Android phones are ARM.
You do understand that it's more complicated than simply needing another OS right? There's important differences in hardware.
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GeForce Now and XBOX Game Pass Ultimate are two options that let you play games on mobile.
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Not the best example that one there, since N64 games should be easy to emulate on the Switch and Nintendo owns the rights to a bunch of the popular titles. I'm not talking about literally inserting a cartridge, obviously, but rather offering the games on the store like they used to do for the Wii and WiiU.
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Have you not seen most of the games released on steam in the past few years?
Most are either shovelware or port of mobile games.
Not sure about the hardware/software differences between Nintendo machines, but i'd think they'd have it easiest porting older games to newer systems.
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mobile has mobile based games and Steam is for pc
There are hundreds of games on Steam that are playable, or even better with a touchscreen. Obviously, not FPS or RTS, but hidden object games, puzzles, Point and Click adventure games, puzzles, turn based game could work without an issue.Years passed since mobile and PC shared games, it's not as separated as you think it is.
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Unfortunately I don't think any third party app stores can update paid apps through Google play (Amazon, f-droid etc)
I have 30 Android games listed in my humble app (and loads of comics/ebooks and audio books/soundtracks), though I cannot remember the last time a bundle included an android version of a game along with the PC. It has been a while.
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Indeed, I'm not sure, but one thing is for sure - 'Valve Cloud Gaming', for me, will come out faster than 'Half-Life 3'. (´ー`)
However, there are many alternatives right now. As well as 'NVIDIA GeForce Now' and 'Xbox Game Streaming'. Those are worth a try.
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PC (x64) is very different from mobile (ARM). and unless the developer "create" different version of the game, there is is no easy way to make it work
Think of how Linux/Mac cant play all the games even when its on the same PC.
also mobile is not as "fast" as PC and cant play high graphics game.
maybe you would like something like a handheld PC
notice how they use Intel (x64) to avoid problems.
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Or will I forever be having to install a hacked version of windows, that I can run steam from?
Currently I enjoy a few titles on my windows tablet, but I currently flag any obvious mobile game as ignored, as i'd rather save them to play on my phone when not in front of a computer...
Any thoughts or observations? I had high hopes years ago with steam launching it's app, controller, and box, then later VR hardware, but currently Valve seems to have zero interest in the mobile market.
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