Reminder: Remote Play Together is one of Steam's best features

A Wattam screenshot.

Wattam is one of many games that support Remote Play Together. (Image credit: Funomena/Annapurna Interactive)

As an idea, Remote Play Together is the perfect Steam feature. It turns local multiplayer games into online multiplayer games without developers having to make their own online modes. Just by existing, it makes loads of Steam games better, at least for people who can't be in the same room together to play them, which is most of us here in 2020. 

Of course, internet connections are wobbly, and so Remote Play Together can result in 15 minutes of starting and restarting a game before ultimately saying to hell with it, it's not working today. When I have gotten it working, though, the feature has allowed me to play games like TowerFall Ascension with friends, which I just couldn't have done two years ago, given that I'm not physically near anyone I play games with. Sweetening the deal is that only the person hosting a Remote Play Together session has to own the game being played. That's how things would be if you were actually at your friend's house, but it's always a little surprising when there isn't a catch.

Some games that particularly benefit from Remote Play Together:

Remote Play Together is an offshoot of Steam Remote Play, which is also a cool feature, but one that I never use. Remote Play allows you to run a game on your PC and stream it to a screen somewhere else on your home network. Last year Valve expanded the feature so you could stream from your home PC no matter where you were, as long as you had an internet connection. It's like a virtual desktop, but optimized for gaming—or, like Stadia, but your own PC takes the place of a data center.

Remote Play Together works the same way, except that you're streaming the game over the internet to a server, which relays the video to friends you invite through your friends list. Meanwhile, their controller or keyboard input is sent back to your PC so that they can control a character, or whatever they need to control in the game you're playing. More than 200 games on Steam support the feature.

In theory, the host will have a slight advantage in competitive games because they get the locally-rendered version—no lag, no input delay. In my experience, though, the streaming delay hasn't felt as noticeable as you might expect. It's there, but as much as I wanted to blame network conditions when IGN deputy reviews editor (and PC Gamer alum) Tom Marks beat me at Boomerang Fu, I think he was just better at throwing boomerangs than I was.

Tom has run a few of the Steam Remote Play Together sessions I've joined. Things were a bit shaky with his old internet connection, which he tells me got around 125 Mbps down and between 10 and 15 Mbps up. It worked fine a few times, but sometimes it would work for a bit, and then the stream would get super artifacted and become unplayable for the remote players.

After Tom upgraded to gigabit fiber internet, the experience become much more consistent, to the point that he could stream a five-player game with one player in England (like me, Tom's in California), and the only issue was input delay that was bad enough to be "noticeable," but that they could play through. 

So, with the caveat that Remote Play Together is best if the host has a fast internet connection, it really can work. (And you don't need gigabit fiber, it's just nice.) 

If you don't have any games that support Remote Play Together, I suggest testing it out with a cheap one, just in case it doesn't work well with your particular internet setup and friend group (and you can always refund the game).

As runner-up for the best recent streaming-related feature, I'll throw in a nod to Discord's Go Live streaming, which was introduced in the summer of 2019. It is a very easy way to stream a game to a handful of friends, which sometimes is all you want to do (as opposed to running a public Twitch stream). And you don't have to just use it for game streaming—it's a way to watch videos together, which has been especially nice to have in 2020. Discord just made it possible to screen share from a phone, too.

Tyler Wilde
Editor-in-Chief, US

Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the '80s and '90s, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on early PCs. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now, and PS1 classic Bushido Blade (that's right: he had Bleem!). Tyler joined PC Gamer in 2011, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.

Latest in RPG
kingdom come deliverance 2 thunderstone quest
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's masterful quest design can be summed up by one wonderfully weird search for a magic stone
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'
Latest in Features
kingdom come deliverance 2 thunderstone quest
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's masterful quest design can be summed up by one wonderfully weird search for a magic stone
Blue Protocol players dancing minutes before the game closes forever
What will we do at the end of the world? If MMOs are any indication: mostly what we already do, plus a lot of dancing
Sphene applauds in Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story.
I'm not yelling 'we're so back!' yet, but Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story could be the first sign the MMO is returning to what made it so critically-acclaimed
Several tight-wearing superheroes surge towards the camera in a heroic fashion in City of Heroes.
One year later, City of Heroes' officially recognized fan server has me praying it's the future of dead MMOs
Immortal Pillars expansion for Age of Mythology: Retold
Age of Mythology Retold's new Chinese pantheon expansion takes a bold stance on updating an old game: Just make good new stuff
Ragnarok Battle Offline
After punishing my graphics card with Monster Hunter Wilds, I've returned to the rock-solid frame rates of my old hunting grounds: Windows XP