Why update today what you’re free to update in three months?

Here’s Valve’s reasoning.

Ah, yes, I can see that being a problem.

A menu on Steam shows a drop-down option that will let the user download games only when they launch them.

This is what that menu looks like.

This will let you apply it to all your installed games.

For me, downloading updates on launch would be a horrible existence.

By the time the updates are done, it’s bedtime.

There is no way in hell I want to turn Steam into that.

But, yes, I can see it being useful for some concerned with bandwidth.

Here’s predicting the feature will quietly and confidently make its way to the stable branch soon.