Launching after just over a month in beta is Steam's new Remote Play Together feature, which allows Steam users to get together and play local multiplayer games over the internet. All you have to do is start up a game, go over to your friends list, and select a player who you'd like to invite to play multiplayer with. Remote Play Together officially supports up to 4 players at once, but more can join in, though things can get a little laggy if someone's got a bad connection. You can take advantage of playing couch co-op games with others, regardless of platform. All you need is Steam, for Windows, MacOS, or Linux, or alternatively, the Steam Link app for Android/iOS.

Additionally, Steam is also holding a sale specifically focusing on games with local multiplayer, such as Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, Overcooked, Towerfall Ascension, and a ton of LEGO games.

Source
Steam Sale

 

[Reploid]

So it's parsec basically?

 

[Neo127]

So it's parsec basically?

Yeah but built into steam. So no friend need to install something other than steam

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

@Chary You know what this means.... 2 player sonic adventure 2 battle.

I mean uhh 4 player sonic mania streams.

 

[WiiHomebrew+Snes]

Steam games only?

 

[Necron]

Steam games only?

Yes

 

[supergamer368]

That’d be cool if I could actually convince any of my friends to play with me. The only games we’ve played recently are Minecraft and Garfield Kart.

 

[Deleted User]

@Chary You know what this means.... 2 player sonic adventure 2 battle.

I mean uhh 4 player sonic mania streams.

Both are an excellent point.

 

[Daggot]

How is the input lag? Anyways parsec will remain better in my eyes until you can use this on emulators.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

How is the input lag? Anyways parsec will remain better in my eyes until you can use this on emulators.

You can actually get around this pretty easily since it's purely an artificial limitation, you just need to hijack a Steam game that supports Remote Play Together and replace it with the program you want to use and bam, you get Remote Play Together with whatever.

So for example you can install Heave Ho, backup and delete the game files, put a Dolphin install in the Heave Ho folder and rename Dolphin.exe to HeaveHo.exe (or whatever the exe is named) and then launch Heave Ho from Steam. It'll launch Dolphin instead, and you can use the Remote Play Together stuff if you wanted to.

As for input lag, it's not too bad. I've used Parsec before and I'd probably say it's about the same the majority of the time, maybe even better in some games. Also MUCH easier to setup, too.

 

[Rahkeesh]

Its a little uncharacteristically lame of Valve to not support non-steam games here like they do for most things. Particularly considering that workaround.

 

[Windi]

You can actually get around this pretty easily since it's purely an artificial limitation, you just need to hijack a Steam game that supports Remote Play Together and replace it with the program you want to use and bam, you get Remote Play Together with whatever.

So for example you can install Heave Ho, backup and delete the game files, put a Dolphin install in the Heave Ho folder and rename Dolphin.exe to HeaveHo.exe (or whatever the exe is named) and then launch Heave Ho from Steam. It'll launch Dolphin instead, and you can use the Remote Play Together stuff if you wanted to.

As for input lag, it's not too bad. I've used Parsec before and I'd probably say it's about the same the majority of the time, maybe even better in some games. Also MUCH easier to setup, too.

Although Dolphin has Netplay, which is probably a better option if you want to play with someone

 

[Xanthe]

I'm not sure I would ever really use this. All of my friends have gaming-capable computers and good internet connection. I enjoy this concept, but I feel like I would only use this feature in rare scenarios.

Extra thought though, I wonder if this would work with pirated games, perhaps allowing the users to join their friends in a local game mode?

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

I'm not sure I would ever really use this. All of my friends have gaming-capable computers and good internet connection.

I enjoy this concept, but I feel like I would only use this feature in rare scenarios.

It's not a matter of having a good PC or internet connection, that's not what this is targeted at. This allows you to play games that only have local multiplayer, with people online.

 

[Xanthe]

It's not a matter of having a good PC or internet connection, that's not what this is targeted at. This allows you to play games that only have local multiplayer, with people online.

Correct, but like I said, I probably won't find this useful. I live with the friends I game with. I don't need co-op. In my life, I would only find this necessary if I had a distant friend with a poor PC.

I didn't say this applied to everyone, buddy.

 

[Xzi]

Its a little uncharacteristically lame of Valve to not support non-steam games here like they do for most things. Particularly considering that workaround.

Yeah! C'mon Valve, when are you gonna start adding useful features to EGS? We know Epic isn't gonna do it.

 

[LightyKD]

Anyone tried this with pirated games yet?

 

[James_]

That’d be cool if I could actually convince any of my friends to play with me. The only games we’ve played recently are Minecraft and Garfield Kart.

I see, you and your friends have great taste

 

[Kraken_X]

It's not a matter of having a good PC or internet connection, that's not what this is targeted at. This allows you to play games that only have local multiplayer, with people online.

... and you only need 1 copy of the game for 4 players. That's huge for online multiplayer.