[Zloth]

Steam is getting ready to beta test a 'friends & family' sharing program. Basically, you can share your stable of games with up to 10 other devices. Your entire catalog has to be shared at once, though.

You can only share one at a time, though, and that's for your whole library. If you play game A in your library and somebody else is playing game B, that person is given a few minutes to get out or buy the game.

Some games aren't included (games with third party keys and MMOs). Heck if I know what happens if one of those is "game A" in the above example.

So pretty limited but, if you know somebody with a lot of games and a tendency to take long vacations... I guess the publishers are hoping the "your friend has started playing, do you want to buy now?" prompt will result in enough sales to cover for the folks who are getting to play games they haven't paid for.

 

[Couchpotato]

I call plagiarism here they stole Microsoft's idea. Still it looks like a good idea if you have a large family, and want friends to try some of your games.

 

[mogwins]

So it functions as if you've given someone your Steam password (without them being able to buy any new games on your account)? If you can't use Steam simultaneously, it would be most useful if your "family members" were in different time zones. Any Hawaiians want to join the Moggs clan?

 

[Zloth]

Yeah, half my family lives in Australia, really they do!

 

[sakichop]

So it functions as if you've given someone your Steam password (without them being able to buy any new games on your account)? If you can't use Steam simultaneously, it would be most useful if your "family members" were in different time zones. Any Hawaiians want to join the Moggs clan?

yeah I've been sharing my games with my kids for years.

I guess now its a little easier and they can have their own achievements and cloud save if you care about those things.

It would be nice if they would expand it so they can play 1 game and I can play another simultaneously. Even if it was limited to pcs on your home network.