no

The problem is that mobile phones have tiny screens and no input devices; PC games just won't be playable, even if they run.

And while it might be possible to get some form of controller for a phone -- how many people actually have that?

Originally posted by Kargor:

The problem is that mobile phones have tiny screens and no input devices; PC games just won't be playable, even if they run.

And while it might be possible to get some form of controller for a phone -- how many people actually have that?

I think I should probably clarify, because

Originally posted by VforVeranda:

Steam games with low requirements

was not clear enough.
I'm not talking about playing the new COD or Battlefield or MS Flight Simulator, but rather games available on steam that WOULD work on a touch screen. 2d games like Terrraria and Starbound come to mind, but are by no means exhaustive.

There is an emulator called Winlator4.0 with which you can play Quake 4, Metro 2033 or even Dark Souls on a phone(apparently). People have already invested time and effort in making it happen, so there is a market for it.
There are also no reasons (Bar maybe Bluetooth bandwith) why any modern controller can not be connected to a phone, should a person wish that. It is more a case of the infrastructure not having been developed yet, or more likely, actively blocked by Android, than a case that in the modern world, it is *still* impossible to do so.

Oh oh oh. This just popped up on my feed. I will have to look into it properly and keep my eye on it.

https://youtu.be/_45nb75TZiw?si=FPA1WrErLKax0WVi

I'm not going to speculate, what it means yet, but this sounds juicy.

Originally posted by Kargor:

The problem is that mobile phones have tiny screens and no input devices; PC games just won't be playable, even if they run.

And while it might be possible to get some form of controller for a phone -- how many people actually have that?

That’s like the entire point a steam deck and big picture mode?

I was stuck in the hospital for awhile and used a switch controller with my phone to play my pc games over steam link. It also gives you an on screen controller option that can be mapped however you want.

Originally posted by HM Stambaugh:

I was stuck in the hospital for awhile and used a switch controller with my phone to play my pc games over steam link.

I am curious, mate. How did it work?
Forgive me if I am wrong, but isn't Steam Link only a way to stream to phone? Where did you stream from? Did you have a PC in the hospital room?

Originally posted by Kargor:

The problem is that mobile phones have tiny screens and no input devices; PC games just won't be playable, even if they run.

You're forgetting the visual novels.

xxx :)

Why would any developer wanna do this and not force the players to double dip?

:D

Originally posted by Tiberius:

Why would any developer wanna do this and not force the players to double dip?

Steam is not, in this case, a developer, rather a publisher. How developers might respond, would be up to them in the end, but it would not influence whichever direction Valve steers this. We can only hope that the quality of apps and games on mobile devices generally gets better as a result.

The main resistance would not be from the developers in any case, but from Google itself. It would threaten their monopoly on apps on Android devices.

Originally posted by VforVeranda:

Originally posted by Tiberius:

Why would any developer wanna do this and not force the players to double dip?

Steam is not, in this case, a developer, rather a publisher. How developers might respond, would be up to them in the end, but it would not influence whichever direction Valve steers this.

The main resistance would not be from the developers in any case, but from Google itself. It would threaten their monopoly on apps on Android devices.

The thing is playstore was alr available for those developers to sell their games in android. Having steam in android wont suddenly change their willingness to make a port for android

Idk why you think google even cares abt this. Altstore like itch.io has existed for a very long time now

Originally posted by Tiberius:

Idk why you think google even cares abt this. Altstore like itch.io has existed for a very long time now

Oh, maybe not caring is a bad business move when Valve is a realistic compeditor. Not saying that itch.io is not, but there is a reason a lot of other tech corporations are currently crying that "Valve is a monopoly". Valve threatens them.

I'm assuming whatever itch.io app you are talking about is sideloaded as it is not on the Google Play store -at least not where I live.

Currently, Android is on a crusade to crack down on sideloaded apps and they quote "User Safety" as a reason. I can give you specific examples, but it's better you just type "Android Cracks Down On Sideloading" into your chosen web explorer to get a proper perspective of the situation. See the forest, not a single tree - that type of thing.

Also, by the sounds of it, people are speculating that Valve might bring out their own phone OS, in which case Google's monopoly gets broken. How much money do they make when people have a viable alternative?

Originally posted by Tiberius:

The thing is playstore was alr available for those developers to sell their games in android.

Yes, and that will remain so, and it is irrelevant, at least in terms of this conversation. The conversation is about having alternatives to play store, whatever apps were developed for it.