How to play PC games on your mobile devices.
Steam has become the largest gaming platform for gaming PCs. With their liberality, they have thousands of games that you can play. Of course, some of them are paid games, but that doesn’t mean that there are no free games on Steam; even the most played games are free, like CS:GO, Dota, Apex Legends, etc., and did you know that you can play all of these games on your phone?
Have you guys heard about Steam Link? Steam Link is a piece of hardware and software developed by Steam for both Android and iOS that allows users to play PC games on their mobile device; as long as you have sufficient hardware and an adequate internet connection, you can play your favorite games on your mobile device right now.
So, how’s this work? basically, the Steam Link streams your games from a computer that runs the game over a local network to your phone, which is why you need a good internet connection to use it. A 5 GHz wireless network is recommended as it has less interference and provides a stable connection with a minimal speed download of at least 5 MB and an upload speed of 1 MB for a smooth gameplay experience.
What’s this mean? You can keep playing your game while you’re away from home, as long as the PC is turned on and both devices have a sufficient internet connection. You can play it anywhere, anytime.
The minimum requirement for an Android device is It's not too pricey, and it's mostly compatible with Android devices like phones and tablets.
The requirement is:
- Android 5.0 or higher
- Internet connection, either wired or wireless.
- Steam Link is installed.
See? Also, you can connect your device to a controller, such as a PS4 or Xbox controller, if you prefer that way. With all the specifications mentioned above, now we’re going to tell you how to use Steam Link. First and foremost, you need to install the games you want to play first, we are going to test it with Metroidvania game called Dead cells. Now, install the Steam link in your device and get started
For this test I’m using Poco X3 GT to play the game. After that, connect your device to the same network connection that your PC is using, and then open the Steam Link. If you can't find your PC, just tap "rescan" until you do, and then confirm the device that you're using.
After this you can just play the game that you want and that’s basically it. There’s no additional setting you need for this, just install and play.
This is where you select which game to play from the games you have installed on your PC. And the picture below is how the UI looks when you’re actually playing the game. You can easily achieve 40 fps and above because you don’t actually play the game on your mobile phone.
With this app, you can actually play your game on your device, but there’s more to the story. The Steam Link App is actually the latest generation of Steam Link; originally, Steam Link was a piece of hardware that worked similarly to the app by allowing users to play the game over the web by just requiring an HDMI connection. However, the hardware was discontinued back in 2018. The reasoning behind it is that the Steam Link app has replaced the need for the hardware device, and the rise of cloud gaming services such as NVIDIA GeForce Now and PlayStation Now has now made the hardware device less relevant. The hardware is also a dedicated device with a single purpose: to stream your game, which is superseded by the app, which provides not only the ability to stream the game but also other Steam client features.
It is worth mentioning that you can still buy the Steam Link Device at some retailers, and it will work just fine; it’s just not being actively developed. What this means is that if there’s a bug or a glitch found somewhere, it either will be fixed in the near future or not at all, but you can still definitely play with it.
So, in conclusion, yes, you can play Steam games or any games on your mobile devices, such as a phone or tablet, and not only with Steam Link; there are a lot of services out there that provide the same thing, like Parsec, Moonlight Stream, Rainway, etc., that are still actively being developed today. Gaming can be fun, and it will be even more fun if it can be played anywhere at any time. That is why cloud computing technology like this will be further developed in the future due to the growing need from and for all parties involved, including gamers.
