Valve Unveils App That Lets You Play Steam Games on your Phone

If Valve cant be trusted to make video games again, at the very least they can try to improve Steam. Well, while theyre still far removed from making the store less of a mess, they are giving the people what they never once asked for: the ability to stream your Steam games to your phone for some on-the-go PC gaming.

Yeah, Im not kidding. This is what theyre giving us.

Called the Steam Link app, which was revealed via a press release just the other day, this app:

allows gamers to experience their Steam library of games on their Android (phone, tablet, TV) and iOS-based (iPhone, iPad, Apple TV) devices while connected via 5Ghz network or wired Ethernet to a host system (Mac or PC), with Android access initially offered in beta. The Steam Link App will feature support for the Steam Controller, MFI controllers, and more across both platforms.

Um, cool. Its set to launch the week of May 21, which is pretty soon and will apparently be free to download. Another, similar app that will allow you to stream movies and shows to your phone via your Steam account will be coming along later this summer, too. Its called the Steam Video app. And whatever idiot decided against calling it Steaming needs to be fired.

Now, unless Valve has some miracle solution for input lag (and Im guessing they dont, which is why this was announced via a three-paragraph press release), this probably wont be very useful for most people, unless you really have to run to the store but you dont want to stop playing Civ 5. And hey, I mean, If that floats your boat Im glad you now have this option. Its still just weird for me. Weird to think this is what Valve is now.

Better than selling drugs I guess?