Recently, a patent for the PC platform Steam has been circulating, which Valve apparently applied for. This patent revolves around playing games while they are still not fully downloaded. Possibly another improvement for Steam?
What exactly is this patent about? The patent was spread by SteamDB founder thexpaw on Twitter. In the tweet, it is mentioned that it refers to a file system that allows games to be started even before they are downloaded.
It is thus a kind of “Instant play” feature, as one is already familiar with from consoles. So far, this feature is not available on Steam and would thus be a practical addition.
How is this supposed to work? The technology is supposed to automatically identify game files and thus recognize the essential data. This way, the technology can automatically decide which parts of the game need to be updated first.
Steam could, as soon as you start the download, download exactly the files you need to start the game first. Of course, this would also depend on your internet connection.
You can read the exact details directly on the patent’s page: freepatentsonline.com
Better than the competition?
This feature already exists for Uplay, Origin, and Battle.net, but this variant brings some interesting details that could set it apart from the other versions.
This is how Valve could do better: Normally, developers have to adapt their games to such a feature so that one can play them before the download is complete. Valve’s concept apparently allows for adaptation without additional effort for developers.
This should make it significantly easier to implement such a feature. Apparently, latency could also be significantly reduced.
Moreover, Instant play on other platforms is usually limited. Often you can only start the menu or at most complete the tutorial. However, Valve’s patent description suggests that there should be no limits here.
Is it even coming? Since this is merely a registered patent, it is hard to say if and when the feature will be implemented on Steam. The patent itself is from March 2021. Nevertheless, there are a few things that suggest Valve might possibly incorporate this feature in the not-too-distant future.
- First of all, Steam has already improved some download features and added quality-of-life improvements in its last major update.
- Moreover, with the Steam Deck a platform is on the way that could benefit massively from such a feature: The Steam Deck is a handheld console from Valve.
Keep in mind that these are speculations and that we must wait and see if this feature comes.
What do you think about it? Would you like to have such a feature on Steam? Or do you not need such frills? Let us know your opinion in the comments.
