Why it matters: Given the enormous size of many of today's games and the fact that non everyone has high-speed internet connections, downloading a championship from Steam can be a lengthy and frustrating process. Wouldn't it be dandy if we could play them before they've finished making their way onto our PCs? Based on a new Valve patent, such a characteristic could become a reality.

As spotted past SteamDB creator Pavel Djundik, United States Patent 11123634 was filed by Valve in March and published yesterday. Information technology describes a Steam mechanic chosen "instant play" that would let users to start playing a game equally soon as it starts downloading.

The patent describes beingness able to "apply a file organisation proxy component that is configured to rails read operations made by the game executable during a game session." This would let Steam to prioritize sure game files throughout the download.

The patent also mentions removing unused blocks of game information—mayhap levels players take already completed—to free up local resources, equally well every bit local prefetching of game information for reducing latency during gameplay.

Consoles have been using this play-while-downloading characteristic since the PS4 and Xbox One, and information technology will exist familiar to Origin and Battle.internet users. The caveat is usually that only part of the game is playable until the entire title has downloaded. Valve's patent, nonetheless, uses the phrase 'without limitation.' Exactly what that entails is unclear, simply it certainly sounds promising.

Another intriguing element of Valve's implementation is that developers don't demand to add together anything extra to their games; it would all exist handled by Valve and Steam.

Like all patents, there'due south no guarantee that the instant play feature will always become a reality, but it looks every bit if Valve is preparing to unleash it on grateful gamers.