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Valve Announces Family Sharing On Steam, Can Include Friends

Posted by Soulskill on from the microsoft-looks-on-sadly dept.

Deathspawner writes "Valve has today announced its next attempt at a console-killer: 'Family Sharing' is a feature that will allow you to share your Steam library with family and close friends. This almost seems too good to be true, and while there are caveats, this is going to be huge, and Valve knows it. As Techgage notes, with it you can share nearly your entire Steam library with family or friends, allowing them to earn their own achievements, and have their own saved games. '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.'"

17 of 263 comments (clear)

  1. Steambox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As long as Steambox allows me to play games with a keyboard and mouse, it will be a superior choice to any other console.

    1. Re:Steambox by jxander · · Score: 4, Informative

      So, you call GP wrong, and then say the exact same thing.

      Steambox is a PC designed to hook up to a TV instead of a monitor, with the primary intent of playing games. Valve was the first company to really start pushing this concept, and are currently working on creating a mass produced unit themselves... hence the name is based on their Steam platform. Whether you build it yourself, or buy a pre-built unit from Valve or their partners is immaterial. Whether you limit yourself to Steam games or the other potential vendors (per your list) is also immaterial.

      Best part is, GGP was most likely a sarcastic remark. A tongue in cheek reference to the fact that valve has talked about a mass-produced Steambox for years now, yet nothing has hit the market.

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    2. Re:Steambox by rsilvergun · · Score: 3, Interesting

      We're all hoping Valve will subsidize the hardware like the rest of the console manufactures and we'll get mid range PCs for $200 bucks cheaper.

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    3. Re:Steambox by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 3, Informative

      steambox n. pl. steam-box-es pretentious pl. steam-box-en

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  2. No co-op by sunami · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Still no ability to play multiplayer with somebody without them buying the game, the one spot where I feel consoles definitely have the advantage over PC games.

    1. Re:No co-op by war4peace · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think this functionality depends on how the game is implemented, rather than what Steam can do about it.

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    2. Re:No co-op by intermodal · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Perhaps that will come. But still, this is a step that Valve didn't have to take, and another reminder that as far as global companies controlling intellectual property are concerned, Valve is about the closest we've got to a "good guy" to root for.

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    3. Re:No co-op by PhxBlue · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Still no ability to play multiplayer with somebody without them buying the game, the one spot where I feel consoles definitely have the advantage over PC games.

      Don't console gamers have to have two copies of the game to play multiplayer, too?

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    4. Re:No co-op by jeffmflanagan · · Score: 4, Informative

      I believe so. Maybe he's talking about split-screen on the same console, which seems to be available on more console games than PC games.

    5. Re:No co-op by Anaerin · · Score: 5, Informative

      Read more carefully. The ENTIRE LIBRARY is shared. And not on a per-game basis, it's all or nothing. And if you (as the sharer) decide you want to play one of your games while someone is using your library, they get booted, even if it's not the same game. And if you're sharing your library with two other people, only one of them can play any game at a time. So you can't play Portal while friend A plays CS:GO and friend B plays HL2.

  3. Imagine this happening with music and movies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sorry, I think I need to go to the hospital, I think I broke something laughing so hard.

  4. Not family sharing, more like account borrowing by jandrese · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Having the "family sharing" plan lock you out of your entire Steam library while a family member plays a game from your list is not family sharing. This is basically just a way to give your account to someone without having to give them your password. Also, they get to keep their achievements, whoop de doo.

    I'm extremely disappointed. I was hoping for a real family sharing option, so I could play Portal in my mancave while my wife plays Gone Home up in the living room, but that's not what this is. It's almost completely useless to me. If Netflix can allow my family to stream multiple movies at once, why cant Steam allow them to play multiple games at once?

    Maybe I should just make a new steam account for every game I buy? That way I can have one master account with my friends list, and everything I buy with the account will be a gift for the actual game account. That would let me actually lend games out and maybe even resell them. It would be a bit of a pain to manage, but seems better than this solution where letting someone borrow a game locks you out of every other game you own.

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    1. Re:Not family sharing, more like account borrowing by intermodal · · Score: 5, Insightful

      TFA says the opposite, it will give your friends a few minutes to buy or save. You always get priority on your library. Not exactly an unfair policy, though I wish it were specific to that title, not to your whole library.

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  5. Interesting... by seebs · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is sorta cool.

    Oddly, this ties closely to the main barrier for me with Steam games: Steam's DRM, while very open in a large number of ways, is more restrictive than any other DRM system I've ever seen in one key way, which is that all Steam games on an account are subject to the same simultaneous usage requirement. Many of the games I play are turn-based games which I might well leave up and running for hours at a time, returning to them occasionally. Some are little fidgets I might play for brief windows. And with Steam's system, although I can have games installed on two machines, I can't play games on two machines at once.

    Yes, I am aware of the "offline mode" option. I have asked Valve, and they have stated that it is specifically forbidden to use offline mode to run games from the same library on two machines at once, no matter what. So if I have two adjacent computers, and I want to play Game A on one machine, and Game B on another, I can't do that if I got them through Steam. This is sort of weird to me, because even the most restrictive of other DRM systems I'm aware of allow you to install one game on one machine, and a different game on another machine, and run them at the same time.

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  6. Re:Microsoft wanted to do this by cbhacking · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Actually, Microsoft was going to do *much* better than this: they would allow two people to use the same account *AT THE SAME TIME* which Steam (still) does not allow. Two different people could play different games that were both purchased on the same account. Steam doesn't even let two people use the same account at the same time at all.

    The always-online thing was, I think, a bigger deal than the first-sale issue; Steam has *never* respected the doctrine of first sale, and people sing its praises all the time. All DRM (including both Steam and downloaded games on the Xbox) on so-called "purchases" can go die in a fire, along with everybody pushing it.

    (I'm OK with DRM on things that are explicitly rentals, like Netflix, so long as they're reimburse me if it doesn't work for me because of the DRM.)

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  7. Baby step by vux984 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This isn't as good as I'd hoped. But its not "bad". Its not taking anything away we didn't have before, and it gives us options we didn't used to have.

    I am happy about this feature, but not satisfied with it.

    It lets me create steam accounts for my kids and let them use my library. This is good -- now my friends won't message them, invite them to play games, etc. Now they can each have their own steam-cloud save files, and their own acheivements, etc.

    Up until now I've just logged in for them, told them they aren't allowed to buy anything, and to ignore any messages or invites. And they've been good about it but this still makes it better.

    But the big problem I had (and still have) with steam is the complete lock on the entire library. If my kids were playing on my account before, I couldn't play. I couldn't play the same game (and I was fine with that) but I also couldn't play a different game -- if my son is playing scribblenauts I can't play Left 4 Dead. And I have always disagreed with that.

    As it stands now, the situation there hasn't changed. If my son is logged in to his account, playing a game on my library I still can't play a different game. So for me, although this feature is a step forward it still falls short.

  8. Re:Kick friends out of games at random. How fun! by DrGamez · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Steam must be for hard-core gamers only, and just because they may not use this feature, it's now "barely added functionality"?

    I'm glad I can let my brother play my games without having to worry about him mucking up my profile, market, inventory, friends, CC# info, etc. I guess I'm sad that I cannot let 10 of my friends play free games off my account at the same time while I'm also using my games and account?

    It's really grasping for straws to shake angrily at Valve here.