Steam : Family Sharing

[Neil O'Loughlin]

Think I remember you asking about this before Alatar on the mention of a steam box and looks like you get your wish. 
Steam game service to offer Family Sharing

Valve's popular Steam game service will soon offer a new option that will help budget-strapped families and friends. It's called Steam Family Sharing, and it enables gamers to play each other's games.

Steam - available for OS X, Windows and Linux - enables you to buy and download games from Valve and other prominent game developers and publishers, along with a number of independent studios. Steam users get achievements for reaching in-game goals, can share their progress with other players and participate in online chats and more.

The new feature allows users to share their games on up to ten devices. Libraries that are shared can only be played by one person at a time, however. As the lender, you're given priority - if you fire up a shared game when someone else is playing it, they'll be given a few minutes to decide if they want to purchase it themselves or quit playing.

While you're playing a shared game, you'll earn your own achievements, plus you'll be able to save your own game progress to the Steam cloud. That way, if you buy the game further on down the road, you won't lose your progress.

The use of the word "devices" as opposed to "computers" may be deliberate; Valve has indicated it has plans to release its own Steam console system in the future - presumably that would count as a device included as part of the Family Sharing plan.

Users who share their accounts share all the games in their accounts, not just a single one - and that includes the downloadable content (DLC) as well.

A limited beta test is coming in September, but you can join the Family Sharing discussion group now for more info.

[Alatar]

Woohoo!  About bloody time!

[Sharkwald]

Yeah, this looks excellent.

My Steam library isn't the biggest, but since my gaming PC is down for the count at the mo, if anyone wants to borrow anything, give me a shout.

[Armand]

I was wondering how this would work in practice. Could we in theory use it to share games? I have a 100+ library most of which I dont even have installed. I'd be happy to share, in fact I 'd be thrilled if I thought someone else was actually play some of the games I had.

[Alatar]

Bear in mind, only one person can be playing at a time, so if I'm working my way through your copy of Torchlight 2, and you want to play any other game in Steam, I get kicked off.  So, its good as a "try before you buy" or in my case, where my gaming times are different from Conor's, but not really practical for two adults, or two kids sharing the same library.

[Armand]

On Thursday, 12 September 2013 11:35:02 UTC+1, Alatar wrote:

Bear in mind, only one person can be playing at a time, so if I'm working my way through your copy of Torchlight 2, and you want to play any other game in Steam, I get kicked off. 

For new games thats an issue and really to be expected....for a backcatalog though it's pretty cool.

[Alatar]

No, its the same for any game.  I could be playing your old copy of Portal or Audiosurf, and I'd get kicked off if you launch ANY game.

[Neil O'Loughlin]

Ah...missed that. Though it was on a per game basis not account basis. 


--
Neil O'Loughlin
Tel # : 0044 (0)7894088352