Valve wants to help us play more video games together. To this end, it introduces a new Steam feature called Remote Play Together. This feature will effectively transform every local co-op game and multiplayer game on Steam into an online game.
The Remote Play Together feature was announced by Alden Kroll, a Valve member, on Twitter. Here's how he explains the feature:
Today, our team announced another new platform feature built into Steam: Remote Play Together. This will allow friends to play local cooperative games together on the Internet, since they were together in the same room. https://t.co/jEZyGoXEfcOctober 10, 2019
Essentially, Remote Play Together will make the individual player host online, the game running locally on their PC. Regardless of the game they play, they will be streamed online. The inputs from these players are returned to the host and recorded in the game as if the players were playing.
However, the new feature has yet to arrive. According to our sister site, PC Gamer, it will be available in beta later this month. An announcement explains: "All local, co-op and splitscreen multiplayer games will automatically be included in the Remote Play Together beta, which we plan to release the week of October 21."
Another step to broadcast the game
This may not seem like the biggest news because many of the best multiplayer PC games are already online multiplayer, but it is a welcome step for streaming and a nice touch from Valve. This feature could be particularly useful if Steam allows players to play the same game online when the game is only played by one player, as would be the case in local multiplayer.
Remote Play Together is also another way to showcase your game streaming potential. Not only will players be able to log in long-distance, but only one of them will likely need to have a gaming computer. Modest hardware, as we learned in the Google Stadia beta when we played Assassin's Creed Odyssey on a 25-year-old Chromebook, equipped with the Celeron processor.
With this update, it seems like it's only a matter of time before the game stream slides into almost every corner of the game.