Steam Deck now supports game transfers over your local network, allowing you to copy installed games from your PC to Steam Deck without having to re-download them over the Internet. This feature, which is included with the Steam Deck beta update released last weekIt should help reduce the amount of internet data you use, especially if you find yourself frequently re-downloading heavy games to your handheld.
To gain access to the feature, you must first enable the Steam beta in both the Steam Deck and the Steam client on your PC. From there, select the game you want to install on your Steam Deck, and Steam will automatically check if any PCs on your network already have the game. If it finds one, Steam will begin the game transfer process.
It’s worth noting that this feature also applies to PCs on the same network, so you can transfer already installed Steam games to your PC from any other PC in your home. Steam goes into more detail about how everything works in your support pageand notes that if the devices lose connection during the transfer process “or there is no more content available”, Steam will download the rest of the game from its servers.
You can also adjust the settings that dictate which PCs can download your Steam Deck (or PCs). While Steam sets it to “Only my own devices by default”, which means you can only transfer games from the devices you’re logged into Steam with, you can also set it to “Only my friends” and “Any user” If you wish. want to get games from a friend or family member’s PC. Unfortunately, Steam does not yet support game transfers originating from the Steam Deck or PC in Big Picture mode.
I don’t have Steam Deck (still), but I certainly wish I had this feature when I downloaded ancient ring from my partner’s shared Steam library. Either way, I’m glad it’s here now, as it’s nice to have something to help me stay under my internet data limit for the month, even if it only has a slight impact.
