As a PC gamer, I enjoy buying games at a discounted price especially when there are Steam Sales. There is nothing like the Steam Summer sale where all the best games are priced so low, you end up stocking your digital shelves full of them. The only issue is finding the time to play them all after you have purchased so many of them. This is where the new Steam Family Sharing plan can really come to play. Let’s say you have so many games in your library and have a friend that wants to play it but missed out on the sale or doesn’t have the funds to buy it. Well you can simply lend them the game digitally and they can enjoy it so long as you are not playing it.
With the Steam Family Sharing beta soon to be released to a select few participants, you have the option to let your friends or family borrow your games with a simple click of your mouse. There is only one catch though: If you authorize your friends/family member’s computer to be one of your sharing buddies, they can download any of your games and play them on their account, with their own achievements and save files. The only thing is they won’t be able to play games at the same time as you. Think of it like they are borrowing your computer for a bit. If you try to play a game while they are using any game from your library, they will get a warning to either purchase that game or quit, and then they will be forced to quit the game.
Here is the Press Release:
September 11, 2013 – Steam Family Sharing, a new service feature that allows close friends and family members to share their libraries of Steam games, is coming to Steam, a leading platform for the delivery and management of PC, Mac, and Linux games and software. The feature will become available next week, in limited beta on Steam.
Steam Family Sharing is designed for close friends and family members to play one another’s Steam games while each earning their own Steam achievements and storing their own saves and application data to the Steam cloud. It’s all enabled by authorizing a shared computer.
“Our customers have expressed a desire to share their digital games among friends and family members, just as current retail games, books, DVDs, and other physical media can be shared,” explained Anna Sweet of Valve. “Family Sharing was created in direct response to these user requests.”
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.
The limit for the Steam Family Sharing plan will be up to ten devices. Also, as this is in beta stages and not complete, some games will not work as part of the program. Valve has stated that “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 between accounts.” This means that games using U-Play from a developer like Ubisoft might have issues with the sharing plan and will not work. For more specifics on the plan please feel free to check out Valve’s official Steam Sharing Website and sign up for the program.
Looks like I’ll finally be able to try out some games I’ve wanted to try but never had access to, as well as lend my friends games that I’m not currently playing. I’m quite glad steam is taking this type of direction.
Agreed, steam continues to be Valve’s ever-giving gift to PC gamers.