We gave the new feature a spin and it works as advertised. If you haven't already set up your privacy settings, you'll be prompted to choose from the above options on receiving your first broadcasting request. Elsewhere in the settings you'll options to broadcast microphone audio, choose a resolution from 480p, 720p or 1080p and a bitrate between 750kb/s to 3500kbit/s, depending on the strength of your connection.

It'll take a lot to topple Twitch as the go-to service for streaming games, but for something that's still marked as "in beta," it's all very functional, and the fact it requires no prior thought or effort to get started is a big plus. Perhaps the only snag we ran into is a lack of audio settings, and that Broadcasting is only live in the Windows client. Mac and Linux users can watch others gaming, but can't stream themselves, and pretty much anyone can watch streams in their browser through the Steam Community site so long as they're logged in. Of course, the vast majority of Steam gamers use PCs anyway, and Valve says the broadcasting feature will come to Linux and OS X in the future.