PC gaming company Valve introduced a new feature allowing gamers to share live video of their gameplay, a function called Steam Broadcasting.

Every Steam user who has made a purchase has the capability to stream audio and video from any game through the service through the Internet. The content can be viewed publicly or by individual people on gamers' friend lists. Steam comes with "no game ownership [on the viewer side], special fees, or additional apps required."

Even better, players who have the broadcast sharing feature don't even need to decide to begin broadcasting before they start the game. As Valve explained on their website, "if your settings allow your game to be watched, then you start broadcasting when someone starts watching" by pressing the "Watch Game" selection on their friends list menu.

However, to avoid friends looking at gameplay without the user's knowledge, gamers will be prompted to set privacy settings the first time any watch request is sent. Through this screening, individuals can require friends to receive invitations or make requests each time in order to watch a gaming session.

The live streams can be viewed through the Steam client itself or on a Web browser, where Chrome and Safari have been officially supported by Valve. Viewers can also interact with each other via a chat sidebar on the screen.

There is a code of conduct that Broadcasters must abide by that prohibits restricted content like pornography, threats, abusive language, racism as well as discussions about cheating, hacking or piracy of the video game.

Steam Broadcasting's introduction comes just a few months after gameplay streaming service Twitch was purchased for $970 million by Amazon. The hefty buyout shows the quick growth that has been seen among gameplay sharers in the past several years. Twitch reported that it has more than 60 million visitors per month. The PS4 now has the ability to stream gameplay through Twitch, and the Xbox One quickly followed suit.