Steam Announces Limited Family Sharing

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Not sure if this has been covered elsewhere, or if there is a dedicated Steam Catch-All, but I found this to be pretty interesting...

Steam Family Sharing

Beta starts next week.

just saw it on steam ... this is amazing join the Steam group for invite to beta

maybe i can finally play some games that are not available to buy in my region

Sounds awesome -- I'm wondering how this works

"Once a device is authorized, the lender's library of Steam games becomes available for others on the machine to access, download, and play. Though simultaneous usage of an account’s library is not allowed, the lender may always access and play his games at any time. If he decides to start playing when a friend is borrowing one of his games, the friend will be given a few minutes to either purchase the game or quit playing."

Another reason I go out of my way to buy PC games almost exclusively on steam.

They treat customers with respect, listen to feedback, and they implement DRM that doesn't treat me like a criminal.

Curse you Gabe Newell and your enabling sales!!!

/ESA

PS: CD Projekt Red is not far behind in customer respect. I buy any of their games sight unseen just to support them (I know my individual sale is probably meaningless, but I hope my drop in the bucket helps), maybe you should spread the word on them too if you can.

PoderOmega wrote:

I have to wonder when it is out of "limited" beta if it will really extend to all games. I can see a big publisher like EA (even though their new games are on Steam) outraged by this because they may equate it to a lost sale. I wonder how open ended the agreements with Steam have to be to allow this. I see this as a good way to push more sales but some of the bigger publishers may see this as loss of control of their product instead of an oppurtunity.

According to the FAQ, I doubt that it will work for EA Games (or Ubisoft)

Can all Steam games be shared with friends and family?
No, due to technical limitations, some Steam games may be unavailable for sharing. For example, titles that require an additional third-party key, account, or subscription in order to play cannot be shared among friends and family.

We've also got a discussion going in the Steam Update Thread.

Can a friend and I share a library and both play at the same time?
No, a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time.

That right there kills the entire thing and makes it pointless.

Yeah, any *real* gaming family plays together!

breander wrote:
Can a friend and I share a library and both play at the same time?
No, a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time.

That right there kills the entire thing and makes it pointless.

This. When you authorize another computer to be able to play games from your account, they can only play games from it as long as you aren't playing any of your games at the same time. I might lend Europa Universalis to my brother, but as soon as I start playing Dishonored, he is kicked out of the game (within just a couple minutes.) It is essentially like just giving the other person your account to log in and play games.

breander wrote:
Can a friend and I share a library and both play at the same time?
No, a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time.

That right there kills the entire thing and makes it pointless.

It does and doesn't at the same time... at least for me. My kids are constantly playing on my PC & Steam account and I have two Terraria keys waiting for them =to enjoy on a rainy day. I'll make them their own Steam accounts and link them to my main account so they can play Thomas Was Alone, Kerbal or Fez or whatever while I code for work. So it's not perfect, but it's a decent bridge for them to start their own Steam accounts.

Oh man... that's the secret trick to this... Valve just increased my productivity by allowing them to occupy my Steam library.

breander wrote:
Can a friend and I share a library and both play at the same time?
No, a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time.

That right there kills the entire thing and makes it pointless.

I would disagree, as I have 4 kids, 3 of whom have Steam accounts. We have a lot of the same games that we play together, but we each also have games that are specific to one or another account. For instance, my son has GTA IV. I am not a huge fan, but with the new one coming out, it might be fun to "borrow" his copy to play it.

Edit: LockandLoadHausered!

Deadmonkeys wrote:

We've also got a discussion going in the Steam Update Thread.

Crap, missed that. Is there a way to merge this thread into that?

Abu5217 wrote:
breander wrote:
Can a friend and I share a library and both play at the same time?
No, a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time.

That right there kills the entire thing and makes it pointless.

I would disagree, as I have 4 kids, 3 of whom have Steam accounts. We have a lot of the same games that we play together, but we each also have games that are specific to one or another account. For instance, my son has GTA IV. I am not a huge fan, but with the new one coming out, it might be fun to "borrow" his copy to play it.

Only problem is, while you play his copy of it, he can't play any other game in his library (Or he can, but you will be kicked out of GTA V). So while it is definitely a step in the right direction, it isn't as awesome as being able to just give your friend/family the disc for a couple days (for a console.)

breander wrote:
Can a friend and I share a library and both play at the same time?
No, a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time.

That right there kills the entire thing and makes it pointless.

Pretty much.
What's the difference between this and just sharing the password?

kyrieee wrote:
breander wrote:
Can a friend and I share a library and both play at the same time?
No, a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time.

That right there kills the entire thing and makes it pointless.

Pretty much.
What's the difference between this and just sharing the password?

Now you don't have to share your password, keeping your account secure. Also, screw ups won't get your account VAC banned.

Abu5217 wrote:

I would disagree, as I have 4 kids, 3 of whom have Steam accounts. We have a lot of the same games that we play together, but we each also have games that are specific to one or another account. For instance, my son has GTA IV. I am not a huge fan, but with the new one coming out, it might be fun to "borrow" his copy to play it.

This. We're a light gaming time family so the overlapping isn't really an issue.

kyrieee wrote:

What's the difference between this and just sharing the password?

Separate saves, achievements, friends, etc.

Tkyl wrote:

Only problem is, while you play his copy of it, he can't play any other game in his library (Or he can, but you will be kicked out of GTA V). So while it is definitely a step in the right direction, it isn't as awesome as being able to just give your friend/family the disc for a couple days (for a console.)

Ah, yes, now I see what you are saying. Since you are lending the library and not the game itself. Yeah, not that much better, unless I was to play while he was in bed or doing something else. Still, it's a positive step, no?

Deadmonkeys wrote:
kyrieee wrote:
breander wrote:
Can a friend and I share a library and both play at the same time?
No, a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time.

That right there kills the entire thing and makes it pointless.

Pretty much.
What's the difference between this and just sharing the password?

Now you don't have to share your password, keeping your account secure. Also, screw ups won't get your account VAC banned.

And you get credit for achievements. Plus personal cloud saves, and you can share DLC as well.

Deadmonkeys wrote:

Now you don't have to share your password, keeping your account secure. Also, screw ups won't get your account VAC banned.

Not necessarily:

Will I be punished for any cheating or fraud conducted by other users while playing my games?
Your Family Sharing privileges may be revoked if your library is used by borrowers to conduct cheating or fraud. We recommend you only authorize familiar computers you know to be secure.

This is great news. I've shared my Steam login with my two kids, but over time as they have gotten older they now have their own libraries. Makes life a lot easier.

The only downside is locking a lender out of Steam while someone is playing any game. It should lock only that specific game. Maybe if this program goes well...

So I wonder if I share my library a friend and he shares his with me, could we both play at the same time as long as he is playing from my shared library and I his? Essentially like we swapped accounts.

Hey, if it's mutual consent who are we to judge?

PaladinTom wrote:

It should lock only that specific game. Maybe if this program goes well...

While this is certainly a step in the right direction, what I'd like to this evolving into is having a separate Sharing folder/category/whatever on your Steam account. If you're done with a game and know that you won't be playing it anytime soon (or ever), move that game to your Sharing folder/category. Any game designated as Sharing can be played by an authorized friend or family member without being kicked out of that game if/when you (the lender) starts playing a different game, that's obviously not in the Sharing folder/category.

breander wrote:

So I wonder if I share my library a friend and he shares his with me, could we both play at the same time as long as he is playing from my shared library and I his? Essentially like we swapped accounts.

The way this new feature is described, yeah that seems completely doable.

MeatMan wrote:

While this is certainly a step in the right direction, what I'd like to this evolving into is having a separate Sharing folder/category/whatever on your Steam account. If you're done with a game and know that you won't be playing it anytime soon (or ever), move that game to your Sharing folder/category. Any game designated as Sharing can be played by an authorized friend or family member without being kicked out of that game if/when you (the lender) starts playing a different game, that's obviously not in the Sharing folder/category.

That would be a great implementation. That said, not sure how they could get developers/publishers on board.

I have to wonder when it is out of "limited" beta if it will really extend to all games. I can see a big publisher like EA (even though their new games are NOT on Steam) outraged by this because they may equate it to a lost sale. I wonder how open ended the agreements with Steam have to be to allow this. I see this as a good way to push more sales but some of the bigger publishers may see this as loss of control of their product instead of an oppurtunity.

Make a new account for every game you purchase.

Now you have the ability to share every game you have in your "library" and still have access to all the others.

I wonder how many people will do this?

MeatMan wrote:
PaladinTom wrote:

It should lock only that specific game. Maybe if this program goes well...

While this is certainly a step in the right direction, what I'd like to this evolving into is having a separate Sharing folder/category/whatever on your Steam account. If you're done with a game and know that you won't be playing it anytime soon (or ever), move that game to your Sharing folder/category. Any game designated as Sharing can be played by an authorized friend or family member without being kicked out of that game if/when you (the lender) starts playing a different game, that's obviously not in the Sharing folder/category.

Yeah, the only real way I'd be using this is to let my kid play games that I'm done with. I'd really like to be playing other games while my son plays something I lent him.

Valmorian wrote:

Make a new account for every game you purchase.

Now you have the ability to share every game you have in your "library" and still have access to all the others.

I wonder how many people will do this?

That would real hard to keep track of 400 different accounts.

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