Free at last —
One year later, Apple’s version is missing features available on Android.
[Update (12:07 pm): Ars testing has discovered an important difference between the new iOS Steam Link app and the Android version that has been available for over a year. When streaming to an iOS device, Steam launches in a specialized version of Big Picture mode where a user’s Game Library is the only available selection. On Android, by contrast, a generalized remote desktop connection offers the usual access to Steam’s Community, Chat, and, crucially, the Store interface (see examples in the gallery below).
Apple has long required that apps selling digital content give Apple a 30 percent cut for anything sold directly through the app. That decision led many app makers to direct users to make purchases and subscriptions outside their iOS apps. But Apple has cracked down on direct links to outside store purchases within its apps.
(Thanks to Golem.de for the tip)]
Original Story
Valve’s mobile Steam Link app, which lets users stream PC games to other screens inside and outside the home, is now available on Apple’s iOS and tvOS App Stores.
The news comes almost a year after Apple revoked its approval for the Steam Link app to run on Apple hardware, citing what Valve said were “business conflicts with app guidelines that had allegedly not been realized by the original review team.” Apple and Valve have not responded to a request for comment on what exactly changed in the intervening time period.
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The interface on the iOS version of the Steam Link app, which only features access to the user’s game library.
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The same interface on the Android app, offering a more fully featured Steam experience.
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The extremely basic front-end interface that gets you into a world of PC game streaming.
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Just like other in-home streaming options, you can toggle between prioritizing quality and speed.
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Come on, big money, big money, no whammies….
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On a nearby 5GHz router, the Network test was extremely happy with me.
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On a completely wired connection on both ends, the “Fantastic!” actually went down to a more limited “Great!”
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Oh snap! That 2.4GHz router is not up to streaming!
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The underrated Super Puzzle Platformer and other low-end games stream easily and with no apparent difference from the local play.
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A high-end game like Doom suffered from frequent stutters and frame rate dips in our streaming test.
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Playing far from the router resulted in a lot of multi-second unplayable freezes, like this (see performance graph).
As we said
, the Steam Link app works acceptably well if you have the 5Ghz wireless router that’s close to the target device. Even then, you may notice some screen-tearing and stuttering on high-res games that require the most video bandwidth.
The Steam Link app is a replacement for Valve’s dedicated Steam Link hardware, which was quietly discontinued late last year after its late 2015 debut. Game streaming through Steam is also available on Android devices and any computer running the Steam client.
