Gaming installations are taking up more and more space and many gaming laptops do not have storage larger than 1TB. Things get complicated when we need to download a game again and we have to wait hours and hours to be able to fully install the game. Well, Gabe Newell’s company seems to have found the key to solve this problem and it is none other than taking advantage of the other PCs at home.
Steam now allows you to install games from the same local network
No, we are not referring to creating a game in the cloud within the local network in which a system plays the game and broadcasts it to other computers. For this there is already Steam Link, if not, rather the ability to copy game installation folders from one system to another. All this as long as they are on the same LAN or WLAN, that is, connected to the same internet router.
And what sense does this have? Well, you only have to install the game on one computer and copy it to the rest, either a PC or a Steam Deck, so it is ideal for those who have a high-capacity NAS at home and do not have to download the games continuously from the internet. So if you wanted a good excuse to buy one or more large-capacity hard drives for backup copies of your games, then you already have a good excuse for it.
How does it work?
When downloading a game from the Steam servers, the application will ask the computers on the local network if they have the game installed in order to transfer the information from them. The Valve application will continue to check the integrity of the files during the installation. In the event that the installation on the other PC is faulty or incomplete, then it will connect to the internet to download the full game and mark the installation as correct for the other computers sharing the same router.
The different computers in the local network with Steam that have each game will thus be able to ensure that they have an exact copy of it updated in real time through checking between the different systems. In any case, the application allows us to configure the sharing of the facilities under the following parameters:
- Everyone.
- Only computers with our Steam account.
- Our account and the one we have in the friends list.
- In addition, we will be able to ban computers within the same local network, even if they also use the Valve client.
So if you have ever considered a small home server to have a backup copy of each game, Valve has given you one more reason. Either way, will you use this option or do you see it as a waste of time instead?
