Steam patch adds remote game downloads

You may, this very day, start downloading a Steam game on your home computer while stuck bored behind your desk at work, to have it ready to go when you arrive back home. Yes, Steam remote downloads have now officially launched in the regular client.

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You may, this very day, start downloading a Steam game on your computer at home by loading up your web browser at work, to have it ready to go when you arrive back home. Valve introduced remote downloads in a beta build earlier this month, but the feature was officially patched into the regular Steam client yesterday.

To download a game remotely, simply log into the Steam Community site in your browser and poke around your games library. The PC you're downloading to needs to be turned on and online, obviously, and you need to be logged into Steam Friends too. One imagines this will be added to the Steam mobile app soon too.

Yesterday's patch also added support for redeeming the newly-launched Steam Wallet gift cards, and a smattering of fixes.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    May 16, 2012 7:30 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Steam remote game downloads launch.

    You may, this very day, start downloading a Steam game on your home computer while stuck bored behind your desk at work, to have it ready to go when you arrive back home. Yes, Steam remote downloads have now officially launched in the regular client.

    • reply
      May 16, 2012 7:41 AM

      or you could just remote desktop to your home computer and do the same thing

      • reply
        May 16, 2012 7:44 AM

        are you legitimately arguing that this isnt a better solution?

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          May 16, 2012 7:47 AM

          Or you could [complicated thing that only techies know how to do] instead...

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            May 16, 2012 8:56 AM

            If you think remote desktop is complicated and only techies know how to do it, you need help. RDP is fucking simple to set up and to use and logmein and similar shit are widely available too.

            • reply
              May 16, 2012 9:11 AM

              [deleted]

            • reply
              May 16, 2012 9:20 AM

              still a stupid argument to say that you should do something that requires a 3rd party, when you can do the same thing right in the application.

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              May 16, 2012 9:53 AM

              RDP:

              1. Enable RDP on home computer
              2. Write down IP Address. Hope your ISP doesn't change it.
              3. Open ports on router to allow outside access to it.
              4. RDP into your IP address
              5. Wait for your desktop to show up
              6. Navigate to Steam
              7. Tell Steam to install game

              Steam Remote Game Downloads:

              1. Click on icon to remotely download game
              2. I dunno, maybe there's a confirmation prompt?

              You're channeling Linux zealot levels of retardation if you're making the argument that something is stupid because you had an unnecessarily complicated routine in place to do it already.

              Not to mention that my workplace blocks RDP so I couldn't do it even if I wanted to.

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                May 16, 2012 2:01 PM

                Enabling port forwarding and/or DMZ is not exactly the simplest of tasks for a large majority of the steam clientele

              • reply
                May 17, 2012 4:01 AM

                You forgot to include the God-awful waiting times. I don't know if it's a latency issue or what but there will be a number of idle minutes passing between each step.

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              May 16, 2012 10:49 AM

              It is you, good sir, who is completely out of touch with what is "complicated" to your average user.

              To use RDP you need to open ports on your router; that along makes it 1000x more complicated than an average user could do.

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              May 16, 2012 10:55 AM

              Not when different versions of Windows don't come with remote desktop hosting.

            • reply
              May 16, 2012 2:03 PM

              mmm.... no.

            • reply
              May 16, 2012 3:23 PM

              I use LMI all of the time, but I expect 99.9% to favor this new option over the a remote connection.
              Why would you even post this?

      • reply
        May 16, 2012 8:58 AM

        or you could have a baby, train him to navigate steam, and just call him up to do the same thing

        • reply
          May 16, 2012 10:56 AM

          but then you have to train a baby to answer the phone, and that takes too many steps. :)

      • reply
        May 16, 2012 12:53 PM

        What if your work blocks RDP? Think before you type.

    • reply
      May 16, 2012 8:02 AM

      How about adding a remote application launcher from an android phone too??

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        May 16, 2012 8:06 AM

        why would you want this? I'm more curious than anything, i see no reason to launch a game from my mobile phone.

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          May 16, 2012 8:07 AM

          Read the article. It doesn't launch games, it initiates downloads on games.

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            May 16, 2012 8:10 AM

            I was referring to zxinfinity's request for the ability to launch games.

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              May 16, 2012 8:36 AM

              he asked for a remote application launcher. not the ability to launch games in steam.

              • reply
                May 16, 2012 8:53 AM

                I'm assuming he was asking for the ability to click a game on his mobile phone and launch it on his PC. I'm not sure what else a 'remote application launcher' would mean :)

                Thats what i was referring to, but if that assumption is wrong please correct me :)

                • reply
                  May 16, 2012 9:16 AM

                  I think he's asking for the ability to launch Steam remotely. So I guess if you don't have Steam open, you can open it remotely to be able to start downloads. Personally I just leave it running all the time... the more likely case is that my computer is hibernating/sleeping while I'm at work.

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                    May 16, 2012 10:58 AM

                    Yikes...you leave it running all day? Not me. Shut down whenever its not in use. You dont leave a car running in your driveway each night do ya?

                    • reply
                      May 16, 2012 12:48 PM

                      Are you seriously comparing leaving a computer running to leaving a car running?

                      • reply
                        May 16, 2012 12:50 PM

                        Yeah really, your PC won't kill you with carbon monoxide poisoning during the night

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                          May 16, 2012 12:54 PM

                          Indeed. A modern PC (especially a laptop) is also designed to reduce power usage when idle (even without resorting to sleep mode): HDD and optical disc spindown, CPU and chipset partial sleep states, monitor shut-off/sleep, etc

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                      May 16, 2012 12:49 PM

                      you misunderstood me. I always have Steam running when my computer is on. However, each night I put my computer into sleep mode at night and while I'm at work, so I wouldn't have access to the system to remotely install games.

                      However, unless you're being sarcastic, comparing a computer running all day to a car running in the driveway is a terrible comparison. A lot of people do actually leave their computers on all day.

                    • reply
                      May 16, 2012 3:24 PM

                      How do these posts exist on a site like this?

                  • reply
                    May 16, 2012 12:49 PM

                    it also saves a ton of time when games require updates

        • reply
          May 16, 2012 1:02 PM

          So you can launch a game when you leave work and by the time you get home 15 minutes later, the unskippable cutscenes for nVidia, publisher, distributors, etc will be over.

        • reply
          May 16, 2012 1:11 PM

          It could serve as a pseudo 10-ft interface for an HTPC until (hopefully) Valve releases an official one.

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          May 16, 2012 1:55 PM

          I would like to select a game from my commute to have running for me when I get home. If they're gonna give us the ability to select which games to download, why not also give us the ability to start them for when we get home from work?

    • reply
      May 16, 2012 10:16 AM

      I'm kind of glad I've grown past the 'need- to-have-the-game-as-soon-as-humanly-possible-or-I-think-I-will-just-die' stage in my gamer life.

      • reply
        May 16, 2012 10:51 AM

        I've grown past that for movies too. I'll get it/watch it, whatever, when I get to it. Guess that's why I still love Netflix. I gotta wait 500,000 months for the new Warner Bros. release? Fine. Plenty to catch up on until then.

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        May 16, 2012 11:02 AM

        Eh - this is a little different imo. If I have limited game time at home (family life / adult responsibilities)- i'd love to not waste that while the game downloads. Especially when there's a sale that pops up in the middle of the day from a price-war between Amazon and another digital distributor, or a Steam sale.

        Definitely would be a bonus if you could initiate the download using the mobile app, given I can purchase titles on Steam using it (fantastic for steam sales).

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        May 17, 2012 4:03 AM

        I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or if it's because I have over 80 games registered on my Steam account but I definitely hear ya.

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      May 16, 2012 12:03 PM

      Cool feature but the need to have the PC turned on all the time kills it for me.

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        May 16, 2012 12:08 PM

        I would say that this feature is only useful for people who already leave their PC on all the time.

        Like me.

        • reply
          May 16, 2012 12:18 PM

          I really can't swing that. If it could wake up from sleep or something to do it then maybe but to have it fully powered up all day just so I can maybe download a steam game is extreme.

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            May 16, 2012 12:28 PM

            Is this a cost thing or is there some other reason?

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              May 16, 2012 12:40 PM

              There's literally no reason for my computer to be on all day when it's not in use. There's no benefit to it whatsoever.

              • reply
                May 16, 2012 12:48 PM

                wouldnt being able to do this with steam be a benefit? I'm not arguing, it's always interesting to me when people dont leave their PC on all day. I have a number of reasons why I leave mine on, but even if I didnt use it for those reasons I dont think I would turn it off.

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                  May 16, 2012 12:50 PM

                  This is how we know electricity is too cheap.

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                    May 16, 2012 1:01 PM

                    I always thought it was like $10/month on average for a PC. I dont leave my monitor on though

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                    May 17, 2012 4:13 AM

                    Alternate Ending: This is how we identify people who don't pay for their own electricity.

                    etc.

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                  May 16, 2012 12:55 PM

                  Yes, it would be an incredibly minor benefit, one not nearly worth the cost.

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                  May 16, 2012 4:16 PM

                  Leaving something that uses ~100W on all day long is just dumb unless you have a good reason to do it.

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                    May 17, 2012 4:05 AM

                    Leaving something that uses ~100W on all day long that isn't doing a single thing is just dumb since it's already been established that he doesn't have a good reason to do it.

                    Loving the comments in here guys, keep it up!

              • reply
                May 16, 2012 12:49 PM

                With me:

                - My dev IIS instance is on there so I can direct (very small numbers of) people to see the latest of the thing I'm working on
                - My PS3 Media Server is on there so my wife can watch stuff while I'm away
                - Seeding Linux ISO's.

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                  May 16, 2012 12:54 PM

                  I have a separate NAS serving media, other than that the other two things are legitimate just nothing I do. Except that I don't place very high priority at all on seeding.

              • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
                reply
                May 16, 2012 12:54 PM

                Yep, I always sleep my computer overnight and during the workday. To do otherwise is simply throwing money away.

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                  May 16, 2012 1:52 PM

                  I saw it figured on a website that depending on your cost for power it was only a dollar or two a month.

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                    May 16, 2012 2:24 PM

                    Of course that's just what a website would want you to think! Damn self-serving websites...

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                      May 16, 2012 2:36 PM

                      I think I remember seeing that the cost of electricity starting up a PC versus leaving it running is a wash (kinda like how starting and stopping a car engine repeatedly burns as much or more gas than just leaving it idling)

                      Also hard drives are like airplanes - when they're in flight they're good it's those takeoffs and landings that are rough. The wear and tear on a drive starting and stopping over and over is probably a wash compared to just leaving it spinning indefinitely. And at this point in time they're still more reliable than an SSD (though not nearly as fast of course)

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                        May 16, 2012 3:19 PM

                        But I'm not starting and stopping my PC over and over. If I'm at home, the PC is on and stays on. If I'm leaving for more than three hours or when I go to bed, I turn it off.

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                May 16, 2012 2:02 PM

                I have my machine mining bitcoins and folding all day.

      • reply
        May 17, 2012 4:12 AM

        Even for people who don't think they have a use for it at first glance, consider that it gives you the ability to plan ahead and leave your PC on during a specific day when you know a game you will be buying is coming out. Buy it, tell your home computer to download it, have it ready for when you get back. That's one day every once in a while that you will appreciate its convenience, and many days the zealots who jumped you in this thread will enjoy having it.

        Obviously you didn't attack the feature as being pointless simply because you, personally, don't think you'll take advantage of it, so I hope it doesn't sound like I'm going out of my way to defend its usefulness. I just wanted to point out that it may be something that will be nice for you after all.

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      May 16, 2012 12:25 PM

      this is amazing

    • reply
      May 16, 2012 1:33 PM

      reminds me of audiogalaxy. damn I miss audiogalaxy.

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