Long before we all had a high-speed Internet connection, the multiplayer of the games was local. This multiplayer could be either using two controls connected to the PC or a console, dividing the computer keyboard with our friend, or in the best case in local network. Although all modern games come today with support for online gaming, there are great old games that still depend on the local multiplayer. And Steam wanted to take the online to these games thanks to Remote Play Together .
Steam Remote Play Together is a tool launched by Valve for its client that allows any user to play local multiplayer games with other friends over the Internet. What Steam does is create a kind of virtual LAN (similar to what some programs like Hamachi used to do) and trick the game into thinking that the two people are connected to the same LAN, even if they are actually miles away.
We must not confuse the Remote Play Together function with Remote Play . While the first is the one that allows us to play local multiplayer games with other people over the Internet, the second is the function that allows us to play remotely (from another PC, a SmartTV, from our mobile, with Steam Link, etc) to games that run on our PC. Of course, Play Together is like an extension, a module, of Remote Play.
Steam Remote Play Together has no mystery, and after a while being exclusive to beta client users, it is finally available to all users. That’s how it works.
How to activate Steam Remote Play Together
The first thing we must do to be able to use this function is to activate the Steam remote game function. To do this, we will open the game client and enter the Steam configuration from the Steam> Parameters section.
Once here, what we have to do is select the ” Remote Play ” section and make sure that the function is enabled.
If we already have it enabled, we simply close the Steam configuration window and we will be ready to start using this feature.
How to invite a person to play our local game through the Internet
Once we have enabled this feature, the next step will be to invite our friends to join our game. To do this, we will open the game we want to use and, once inside, press the keyboard shortcut Shift + Tab . The Steam panel will open with our list of friends.
We click on the friend we want to invite and we can see how an option called ” Remote Play Together ” appears. Depending on the game (if, for example, you have a good local network gaming API) we can see other options (such as inviting directly to the LAN multiplayer lobby).
We invite the friend and we can see a relay waiting room. We will wait for him to connect and we can start communicating with him.
The other person will automatically join the game. It is important to say that it is not necessary for the two people to have the title purchased or installed on the computer. It will connect through Steam Remote, to our PC. And you can see everything we do, even take control of the mouse inside the game.
The quality is not entirely good, and depending on the type of game it can become chaotic. However, it fulfills its function, and too well considering that it is a global Steam function that works in all games, even in those that can be over 20 years old.
Surely little by little Valve is improving the operation of this feature. But for now it works, and surely more than one will take the opportunity to remember what it was like to share a keyboard with friends, or how we played then on a split screen.