With cloud gaming services becoming increasingly popular, any platform worth their salt will be looking at ways to take the likes of Google’s Stadia and Microsoft’s xCloud — so it’s no surprise that Steam has now entered the fray. Back in 2019 fans uncovered code that suggested a Steam cloud gaming service was in the works — earlier this week that code reappeared, and now official documentation for a beta has gone live. Steam’s “Cloud Play” is its way.

It looks like the first supported service will be NVIDIA’s GeForce Now — certainly one of the better cloud gaming systems, and one whose library could do with a boost since losing multiple titles to xCloud. At this juncture, Steam is asking developers to manually opt-in their games if they want to be part of the new service — there aren’t any clues as to when we might see a finished platform. Yes, Steam might be late to the party this one, but watching and learning from its competitor’s launches — coupled with its already-established clout with gamers — means Steam’s eventual offering could give the likes of Stadia and xCloud a serious run for their money.