Steam will soon let users play local-multiplayer games over the internet

Steam is close to rolling out a new feature called 'Remote Play Together' that will let friends play local-multiplayer games together over the internet. 

As spotted by PCGamer, the feature was initially unveiled in a post on the Steamworks website, which can only be accessed by developers but has since been shared publicly, and will be made available in beta form during the week beginning October 21.

It looks like devs keen to take advantage of the feature won't have to do much, with Steam revealing that that "all local multiplayer, local co-op, and split-screen games will be automatically included in the Remote Play Together beta."

Offering a brief explanation as to how the feature works on Twitter, Steam staffer Alden Kroll explained it uses a combination of screen streaming and input capture.

"[Remote Play Together ] will allow friends to play local multiplayer games together over the internet as though they were in the same room together," he wrote on Twitter.

"It really is only for shared-screen or split-screen games. The tech is streaming your screen to your friend and capturing their input and sending it back to the game, so you are both playing the same game, looking at the same thing."