Valve Announces ‘Steam Library Family Sharing’

Looks like good ideas stay in Washington. Taking a move out of Microsoft’s play book, it looks like the guys at Valve are incorporating a new feature from the Xbox One. Lets take a look at the new Steam Family Sharing.

Steam is the biggest and most widely used Digital Distribution platform there is. One of the biggest gripes users had was, if a game was bought on one account (say on a family computer) you couldn’t play or access saves from the other game. OR if you logged in you were forced to play on the other account. Now with Steam Family Sharing you don’t have to fuss with that.

The process is fairly painless. You authorize an account and then they request access to a specific game and BAM! You can play it on your own account and own computer. If the user is playing the game and you want to hop on, they will be prompted to either buy the game or have a few minutes to finish up/save their progress. Access is limited up to 10 users and not all games will work. Games that require a third party key or subscription (Think Star Trek Online or other MMO’s) cannot be shared.

For the full press release and expanded be sure to check out the official page HERE. Once there you can follow the directions to sign up for the beta and request access.