A week ago the Steam networks were brought to their knees – not by angry hackers or disgruntled employees, but by an inundation of bargain-hunting PC gamers refusing to miss out on a good deal.
In response to this, Valve has now announced a “better, stronger and faster” download system. While Valve didn’t offer much in the way of a technical explanation of the process, they did say that downloads will go through a more firewall-friendly HTTP system, and “will automatically take advantage of web-caching proxies installed at ISPs.”
What SA gamers can really be excited about, however, is the change in the way patches will be downloaded. The current method is somewhat flawed, in that it forces you to download both the patch and the file it is patching.
On the new system, however, only the patch needs to be downloaded, which should save a ton in internet bills. Unnecessary downloads is certainly something that most of us can’t afford, so this is an extremely welcome resolution to a frustrating issue. This also of course means you’ll have much less waiting around to do before jumping in a game.
Valve has also said that in the near-future, this new system can serve as a platform for implementing new features many have been wanting for quite some time, which they say will include “download scheduling, bandwidth throttling, and prioritizing which games get downloaded first.” These improvements may be in response to perceived competition from EA’s new Origin system, although it seems unlikely Steam will be dethroned anytime soon.
Another exciting feature for South Africans suffering with slow internet is Valve’s claim that you’ll “also be able to download an update to a game while you’re playing that game. Steam will apply the update after you exit.”
Hell, it’s about time.
