Steam Announces Family Sharing

[skipclarke]

Today Steam announced its new "Family Sharing" Program. This announcement can only be seen as a leg up on the next-gen consoles, particularly in light of Microsoft's stumble with its own game sharing program.

The new program from Steam allows a user to share their Library with up to 10 other devices (e.g., friends, family, etc.). The sharing is done at the Library level - not the game level. If your Library is being shared, and you come in to play a game - any game - the sharing user will be ejected. They will have a few moments to exit the game, or buy it themselves. But, you can't have 10 different people playing 10 different games out of your library.

This new program could be real boon for people wanting to sample games prior to purchasing, especially those games that lack a demo. This program could also pay dividends for the WSGF in our game analysis and fixing. One option we will explore is the option of a WSGF Test library. The site would be able to purchase games that a core group of Editors/Insiders could use to create Detailed Reports.

A variety of different users could get access to the titles for testing in various configurations such as Eyefinity, Surround, 5x1-P, 21:9, 4k, etc. Users such as Helifax, HaYDeN and dopefish could also get access to create patches. If needed, we could even set up two accounts - one for testers, and one for developers. We had considered something similar earlier, but had concerns over being banned due to account sharing. The Family Sharing seems to make this vision now possible.

Read More

[Jackal Frost]

Tossing my hat into the ring, 714 games, Dope, HaYDeN, and Helifax, you guys are welcome to any of my games for the purposes of creating/updating fixes, and playing games for pleasure. I signed up for the beta, and once I get in, I'll authorize you three, if you're so inclined.

http://steamcommunity.com/id/maulotov/g ... &sort=name

Any other devs want access, just ask!

[Haldi]

i agree, that's a great thing.

Here my awesome huge collection
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Haldi/game ... &sort=name
(It's only visible for friends from friends!)

can't wait for the beta/public release.

[Jackal Frost]

i agree, that's a great thing.

Here my awesome huge collection
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Haldi/game ... &sort=name

can't wait for the beta/public release.

Need to set your profile to public if you want us to be able to see em!

[Garrett]

Note that Family Sharing does not work for games with some types of third-party DRM; this is currently confirmed to apply to all Games for Windows Live and Rockstar Social Club games, and at least some Uplay games (according to their Steam Database entries). This list will likely increase as more games have their data updated for this feature.

Refer to The Big List of 3rd Party DRM on Steam for further details about the individual games this is known to affect.

[skipclarke]

Garrett, thanks for that info. Great find.

[Nox Deleo]

Was wondering when this would be officially announced. Likewise I'll toss my 350+ library in for DR's, fixes or play time (seems a nice way to thank the awesome staff/devs here).

[ViciousXUSMC]

So great!

Now if I can only get my other half to play games more I created her a Steam account and bought her a few games not too long ago. Didn't know this was coming.

I thought I was bad with the size of my game collection but some of you are way ahead O.o

[Jackal Frost]

So, did any WSGF members get into the first beta?