Steam Family Sharing beta

[steve58]

http://store.steampowered.com/sharing/

"Share your Steam library of games with close friends & family"

Steam Family Sharing allows close friends and family members to play one another's games while earning their own Steam achievements and saving their own game progress to the Steam cloud. It's all enabled by authorizing a shared computer.

See a family member's installed game that you want to play? Send them a request to authorize the computer. Once authorized, the lender's library of Steam games become available for others on the machine to access, download and play.

Steam Family Sharing will soon be available in beta for a limited number of Steam users. To express your interest in beta participation, join the Family Sharing group.

For more information about Steam Family Sharing, check out the FAQ, then join the conversation in our group discussions.

http://kotaku.com/soon-youll-be-able-to-share-steam-games-with-your-fami-1294129311

You'll soon be able to borrow digital PC games like you would disks—Valve has just announced a program called Steam Family Sharing that will let up to ten Steam accounts share a single library of games. But there's a catch.

If I authorize your computer to be one of my sharing buddies, you can download any most* of my games and play them on your account, with your own achievements and save files. The catch: we won't be able to play games at the same time—think of it like you're borrowing my computer for a bit. If I try to play a game while you're using any game from my library, you'll get a warning to either purchase that game or quit, and then you'll be booted.

* 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.

[Tuna]

About time!!

[W8taminute]

This is great news.  One of the major attractions of this feature for me is that I can try the full version of a game now before I buy.

[Huw the Poo]

I want my lady to have her own account but be able to play my games on the same computer.  Will that be possible?

[Nefaro]

I'd just be happy if I could have both my laptop and desktop logged in at the same damn time.  Would be nice to be able to have a download going on one while I play something on the other.  >:(

[Bison]

Would be nice to be able to have a download going on one while I play something on the other.  >:(

ALT/TAB out of the game resume the download and return to the game.  I do it all the time.

[Staggerwing]

I tried that in the past and when I alt-tabbed out again a while later the D/L was re-paused.

[Nefaro]

Would be nice to be able to have a download going on one while I play something on the other.  >:(

ALT/TAB out of the game resume the download and return to the game.  I do it all the time.

You misunderstand me.

I want to be able to login and play a Steam game on one computer while being logged in and downloading another Steam game on my other computer.

Right now, if you log into Steam it'll automatically log you out on your other one.

What I'm saying:  It'd be nice if I could have my two computers logged in to Steam at the same time.  I mean.. they're mine and I'm the only one who uses them.  Even most of the online-activation DRM games let you install them on at least two computers at the same time.

[Tuna]

Well with this you can create a new ID (your family).. share it with it.. play it with that ID, while downloading with the other.

[Nefaro]

Well with this you can create a new ID (your family).. share it with it.. play it with that ID, while downloading with the other.

I suppose that's an easy workaround.  If the games in question are actually eligible. 

I'm also not sure if the different logins use the same installation.  I don't think they do.  In other words, if I were to d/l a game on my desktop pc as the associated "family" account, then logged in to my actual account to later play.. I'd have to d/l it again and have yet another installation of it. 

I've seen Steam do that before, with two different logins using the same game.  :-\

[MikeGER]

What I'm saying:  It'd be nice if I could have my two computers logged in to Steam at the same time. 

from what i ve read in a German explanation of their plans ... that just will not work!

and the evil company greed smarted out concept is:  you don't share a single game, you share the whole library, and the whole library gets blocked for the other person(s) when in use...

especially calling it family is nonsense.
just imagine a dad abroad, share his games (libray) with his younger son, living at his mom place,
...so the boy promised to play the car race-game but plays the 17+ horror shooter instead ;)

Also the dad cant play the wargame, while his son plays the car-race game at the same time...

Its just not like: virtual lend a DVD to a friend, he can play, you can not..
Its more like: lend the whole gaming PC (Steam part of it ) to the friend, he can play all, you can reed a book or maw the lawn or wash the car....   
   
would be a good feature if you can virtual lend a single game to a friend, and its blocked when he plays... especially with friends on the other side of the planet. You could playtest a game  or you can even share it (that what they fear most), because both partners hardly never want access a single game at the same time because of the timezone difference 

[JudgeDredd]

Initially reading this I thought "about time" - but actually, is it that much different to my daughter jumping on my computer (or one of my other authorised computers") and using my already logged in account?

Doesn't seem it...but then I haven't read the details - just the headlines.

[Nefaro]

Initially reading this I thought "about time" - but actually, is it that much different to my daughter jumping on my computer (or one of my other authorised computers") and using my already logged in account?

Doesn't seem it...but then I haven't read the details - just the headlines.

Yeah, doesn't seem any different than that.

Just a bunch of useless  hype?

[Arctic Blast]

I can see some utility in terms of sharing with people who aren't in the same house. You can pretty much share with anyone on your friends list (unless regional restrictions are an issue for a particular game). Everyone gets their own save games, cloud saves, remembered settings and achievements.

And if they're playing one of your games and you start up, they get punted. Not the greatest way to deal with it, but at least the one who bought the damn thing gets precedence.

At any rate, it's an interesting first step.

[MikeGER]

is it allowed that one physical person can have several steam accounts and is able to transfer games from one library to the other account library and back  ('gift' and 'gift' it back later) ?

that would be the perfect workaround:
you build a second account for lend, shift the game you don't plan to play for a certain time to your account for lend (you can still always play it if you changed your mind suddenly)  and lend that single game library to your friend(s), while you can enjoy all your other big fat Steal library entries...  perfect.

IIRC, atm  its not possible to transfer a game from one account (gift /sell) to another, the moment it has been activated once ?