Valve is making a few changes to how Steam games update in an effort to manage bandwidth loads during the coronavirus.
With a lot of COVID-19 policies encouraging people to stay home and self-distance, platforms like Steam are breaching record numbers surpassing 20 million people. Valve is trying to balance that load by encouraging self-throttling and a tweak to auto-updating, as more people are home downloading games.
“We know a lot of you (like us here at Valve) are stuck at home right now trying to work or attend school remotely,” Valve said in a blog post. “Or maybe you’re just playing a bunch of great games on Steam. Whatever the case may be, we know that with so many people at home trying to get things done at the same time, it can put a stress on your home’s internet bandwidth.”
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People familiar with Steam know that games automatically download updates when they become available. However, a new change makes it so games that haven’t been played within the last three days don’t update immediately. Instead, Steam will schedule these updates for off-peak times during your local time.
This change doesn’t prevent people from manually updating their games using Steam’s download manager and/or launching a game to force an immediate update.
Valve is also suggesting other options to lessen the recent bandwidth strain such as self-throttling, scheduling updates, disabling auto-updates, and more. Further information on how to take advantage of these features is available here.
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A number of companies such as YouTube, Amazon, and Netflix have also made changes due to bandwidth stress brought on by COVID-19. Disney has stated they will follow similar policies in streaming lower quality options by default for Disney+ in Europe.
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Jeffrey Lerman is a Freelance News Writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @Snakester95.
Source: IGN.com Steam Announces Changes to Game Update Downloads to Manage Bandwidth