Steam are about to introduce something that could be a game changer, allowing you to share your digital games with close friends and family by authorising their computer, meaning everyone can have their individual progress on one copy of the game.
All you have to do is browse your friend or family member’s profile, click on a game they have and request access. If they authorise you, then you’ll be able to download the game to your own computer. This may seem as though it could be exploited, though there are limitations in place: an shared account is only available to ten computers and only one user can access a shared library at a time. Also, if the lender plays the game, then the borrower will have a few minutes to save and quit or purchase the game.
This includes sharing of DLC, but some games will be limited if they require additional subscriptions, such as EVE Online. Region restrictions are in place too, so you can’t attempt to get games in the UK early by sharing.
It sounds like a solid system, with plenty of damage control in place so people don’t stop buying games (and who would, when they’re that cheap in the sale?). You can sign up for beta access now, which begins later this month.
wick15
Excited by the thought of this. Will be great for testing games out your friends have before you buy.
Blair Inglis
If your download speeds are any good!
colmshan1990
A great idea.
ron_mcphatty
Sounds great. By one user accessing a shared library at a time, do you mean once you ‘lend’ a game then if you decide to play it again it gets deactivated on your mates PC?
colmshan1990
Yes.
A better question is this though- from the FAQ:
“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.”
This suggests that we can’t lend individual games, only libraries.
In other words, I could lend you Outlast, but when I sign into Steam to play Bioshock, you’d be kicked out of the game. Even though we’re playing different games.
I think.
gazzagb
Makes sense that only 1 person can access a library at a time, otherwise people would create accounts just to share all the games between friends.
gazzagb
Great idea, going to be useful for trying out games or using it to persuade a friend to buy the game too.
Jim Hargreaves
Brilliant.
Living with a Steam fiend at uni this year. If sharing does works, I’m looking at 200+ games to borrow.
blarty
Its a tad draconian – its really only being able to allow people to have achievements for, and be logged in to their account whilst playing, your games. Removing account locking to allow install machine locking is all well and good, but sharing full libraries and then dropping out when you decide to play a completely different game is a bt stupid….. Works well if you have one PC and want to only buy & install once but use across different accounts, but its a bit of a red herring for people with multiple PCs
HunterGatherer
Meh pc gaming sucks, so no..
Colin Duff
Come on buddy. You can’t make a comment like that without explaining why you think that!
Adam Garrett
A lot of your comments lately have really stood out in the comment section as the sort of thing that we really don’t like to read at TSA e.g. “wondering if all Americans are idiots” and the constant Xbox hate. We’d much rather read a thought out opinion than a comment such as this.
bunimomike
PC gaming is wonderful, just like console gaming. Sadly, it also comes with its own downsides.
Thankfully, this coming generation of hardware (PS4, X1) looks to be the best gen yet with games being easily developed for both consoles and PCs.
gaffers101
This is handy, now I just need to convince some of my PC gaming mates to let me access their games.