Valve Adds Game Sharing To Steam
While computer games are in general one of the best ways to game on, it’s still got its own problems. The biggest one is the fact that PCs are essentially a locked system, since just about every game out there uses CD keys to discourage piracy and thus the games can’t be traded from system to system. Valve, however, thinks you should be able to share your games, at least with your own family.
Valve announced yesterday a new feature making its way to Steam, called Family Sharing. How it works is that a device (aka your computer) can be authorized to share your library with any other users of that computer, and from there anybody can play those games in that library while on that computer, even if they’re logged in to their own accounts. If the owner of the game wants to play that game, however, then the person “borrowing” it will be told to either purchase the game or that they’ll be kicked off in a few minutes.
The real kicker to this Family Sharing plan is the fact that up to 10 devices can be authorized for sharing with an account. That means you could give 10 of your closest friends and family members access to your library, meaning that if your brother wants to try out a game you have but doesn’t want to put the money down quite yet, you can just authorize his computer to access your library instead of giving him your login information.
As awesome as this all is, there is a problem: the feature is only rolling out next week in a limited beta. But still, this is a huge leap for gaming in general, as no longer will console players be able to say “at least we can borrow each others games!” anymore.
