Games these days can get ridiculously big. For example, the latest Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II has a file size of at least 72GB. Gamers with slower internet speed will have to wait many hours, or maybe even a day or two, for the game to download. Now imagine if their PC is running out of space. They have to delete some games, and if they want to play them again in the future, they have to endure the painfully long download time.
But, this might be a thing of the past soon because Steam is doing something about downloading games.
PCGamer reported that SteamDB creator, Pavel Djundik, discovered something new in Steam’s code. The giant digital distribution platform could be allowing peer-to-peer (p2p) Steam downloads via Local Area Network (LAN) in the future.
What is p2p download? Instead of downloading a game from the internet, you can just download the game directly from another PC via a LAN cable. For example, if you have a game installed on your desktop, you would like to play the same game on your laptop as well. Instead of downloading the game again from Steam, you can just connect the LAN cable from your desktop to your laptop and download it straight from your desktop.
Imagine how much time you can save by not having to rely on internet speed to download a game? Of course, not everyone owns more than one gaming PC at home, so this feature only benefits select groups of people.
Since Steam is still working on this feature, don’t expect this feature to arrive anytime soon. If your PC is running out of space, did you know you can run Steam games off an external drive? This is a good option if you don’t want to download the games again.
