Steam Might Allow Users to Download Games Over LAN Soon

Valve seems to be working on making Steam game files easier to transfer between computers. Dataminer and SteamDB creator Pavel Djundik has spotted lines in the Steam API that indicate that the ability to transfer Steam downloads over LAN might be coming soon.

While its uses aren’t immediately obvious, players with multiple gaming systems that use Steam will find the new feature useful. A good example is that this feature can be used to download Steam games from a PC to a Steam Deck without having to worry about keeping the handheld system running for too long.

Valve recently hit a new landmark with concurrent Steamusers hitting an all-time peak of just over 30 million users. Earlier this year, the all-time peak sat at around 28 million.

Steam has also released a new version of its client beta that allows users to make use of the Steam Deck’s implementation of the Big Picture Mode UI on their PC. The new UI brings an improved home screen, and quick access to multiple options through controller shortcut keys.

A good example would be downloading games on Steam Deck directly from your PC instead of the internet.

If it will read installed game on disk, that should also avoid the decryption step for each chunk.

— Pavel Djundik (@thexpaw) October 27, 2022