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Valve’s Steam Link app is now available for iOS devices, a year after the company originally offered the app to Apple users, only to have it rejected by the App Store.
The Steam Link allows users to play games from their Steam library on Apple TV and compatible models of the iPhone and iPad. Yesterday’s announcement from Valve said users need to connected via a 5Ghz network or a wired ethernet connection. Steam Link supports MFI controllers or the Steam Controller.
The Steam Link box itself, discontinued in November, is not necessary. That device allows users to stream games from a PC to a connected television.
When Steam Link support for mobile devices launched a year ago, iOS devices were originally supported and included in the announcement. Later, Valve moved its release date to “pending further review,” and then said Apple had rejected the Steam Link app outright. “Business conflicts with app guidelines that had allegedly not been realized by the original review team,” was the reason, in Valve’s words.
Back in November, Valve announced to users that it had discontinued the Steam Link device, which allowed streaming PC games directly to televisions. While Valve didn’t explicitly say it would never make Steam Link modules again, it did say that the remaining stock was all that was available and that they were selling out fast in Europe and the U.S. The $50 device had been bundled with other, more useful peripherals, and even sold as low as $2.50 in the months before that.
However, Valve said it would continue to support Steam Link software, which does not need the device to stream to mobile screens. Valve also said it would still support the Steam Link box.
In March, Valve announced a beta version of Steam Link’s software, called Steam Link Anywhere, which would allow users to stream Steam games to any connected device, not just ones connected to a home network. Steam Link Anywhere currently supports Android devices and not iOS devices, however.
