Valve patents “instant play” game downloads
Steam owner Valve has plans for a new method of downloading games, allowing players instant access to software while it’s installing.The system is found in a new patent filing, which you can view online here and here. While it has the rather dry title of “Tracking file system read operations for instant play of video games, and for client-side discarding and prefetching of game data”, the implications could be significant for players and developers alike.It seems to be based around communicating which parts of a game users typically need to access first, possibly based on what a number of players do first in a game.