The king of downloadable games, Steam, has announced a Family Sharing option that will allow customers to authorize certain devices to access their library of lendable titles. Think of it as lending your friends or family a physical copy of a game or book, Steam now gives you that option with your digital downloads too. And if you see that a friend has a game you've been wanting to play, you can request access to try it yourself.
So how will this Family Sharing work? Well, unfortunately there are limitations to sharing, of course. Your library can only be used by one person at a time. So if you, the primary user, log in to spend some tender time with your games then your friend or family, or whoever, is logged in to your account will have to save and quit whatever game they are playing or buy the title themselves.
The Steam Family Sharing beta will be launching next week, and you can sign up for it at the source link. Be sure to check out the full press release below courtesy of engadget.
Are you excited about Family Sharing for Steam?
Coming Soon: Players who share computers can also share their Steam games
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.
For more information about Steam Family Sharing and the beta program, please visit http://store.steampowered.com/sharing/.
Related: Steam Summer Sale 2013 Date Leaked? Rumors Suggest July 4 Start Date; See Full Game List Leak Here
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