Sharing will obviously only work when online. It will boot you after a few minutes if you go offline for some reason.
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Steam Announces Family Sharing
- Thread starter MRORANGE
- Start date
Sharing will obviously only work when online. It will boot you after a few minutes if you go offline for some reason.
Madrugador
Member
This is going to be amazing for me. I buy a lot of games twice because I don't like when other people use my account (like my brother).
Great move Valve.
Great move Valve.
More than one computer in a single home is not some bizarre scenario.
The_Hitcher89
Member
Any way of doing it so you have two accounts with s shared library on the same PC without having to use Offline Mode?
Interfectum
Member
Why would they? The most logical solution would be to simply not allow you to play borrowed games while offline.
28 Posts Later
Member
Of course it's not.
It's essentially an official sub-account system, as you say, akin to lending someone else your account.
Since the person who owns the game can override whoever the sharing person is, I don't see this having a large effect on game sales. If people want to play it right away they'll buy their own copy.
This seems to be a bigger deal for legacy games someone may not be playing anymore.
This seems to be a bigger deal for legacy games someone may not be playing anymore.
soul creator
Member
when they say "accessed by one user" I'm assuming they mean one user who's not the original owner. The original owner can play their games any time they want. If both the owner and the moocher try to play the same game at the same time, the moocher gets kicked off after a few minutes and probably gets nagged to buy the game.
SkyTurnsRed
Banned
Can a friend and I share a library and both play at the same time?
No, a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time.
Deflates the idea of a GAF account.
No, a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time.
Deflates the idea of a GAF account.
0_o
I hope you mean the original Prey because I just got my hopes up for a couple of seconds...
So this isn't restricted on one machine? Interesting.
gunstarhero
Member
LOL - too perfect
And also allows you to maintain control of who has access and when.
Nightengale
Member
Didn't some MS exec said that their plan allows 2 people to play at the same time?
cookie-monster
Member
it was confirmed by Occam's Razor
Yes.
Its called Family Sharing Beta, thread just posted on GAF. cool stuff.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=675373
Diddy Kong
Banned
Since my brother is slowly turning into a PC gamer, this is great news 
I hope that this will keep the original account details (credit card and other personal data) hidden. Only the software will be available.
Yeah this is pretty limited. I'm surprised by all the positive comments thus far.
True. Lots of people without Internet, too.
starwarsfan541
Banned
Thats what I figured, just a bit concerned since I have three computers with my account and two in permanent offline mode for Civ 5.
YianGaruga
Banned
How I read it, the following two things will work
1. You enable "Family Sharing" locally on a device, so that every other Steam account on that device can use your library
2. If you had perviously installed a game on device A, another person on device A with a different Steam account can request access to that game (i.e. the entire library) and you can authorize that device for family sharing remotely.
I don't think you can send and share your library to anyone you want.
1. You enable "Family Sharing" locally on a device, so that every other Steam account on that device can use your library
2. If you had perviously installed a game on device A, another person on device A with a different Steam account can request access to that game (i.e. the entire library) and you can authorize that device for family sharing remotely.
I don't think you can send and share your library to anyone you want.
akachan ningen
Member
Anybody here want to let me into their family? You can be my rich uncle.
jediyoshi
Member
Joke's on them, I don't live with my close friends. Maybe it shouldn't have gotten front billing over the word 'family'.
The Cowboy
Member
Nice, I just finished building my daughter a PC for Christmas, with this she can now access all the games on my account in her house.
Very happy.
Very happy.
infinityBCRT
Member
Shots fired.
Awesome, hopefully this comes to PS4 and XB1 now.
Awesome, hopefully this comes to PS4 and XB1 now.
Forsaken82
Member
Did you really expect the ability have 10 people play 10 random games wtihout restriction?
Marty Chinn
Member
Ya, so Steam is worse, but gets praised.
The thing is MS tried to do this while mixing retail games in the balance. If they did not try to mess with retail and only had this plan for digital games their message would have been received with a lot more enthusiasm I think.
This really isn't as exciting as it sounds.
Basically it gives you three things previously impossible:
1. Not having to give out your login credentials to a friend/family member for them to play games in your library
2. Friends/family can now earn achievements
3. Friends/family can save their games to the cloud
Other than that, it's really not giving us any other functionality. Considering that their not being too clear on how the original user activates sharing (i.e. does the device that is to be "shared" need to be set-up with the lender's account first?, does the lender have to activate sharing while USING the shared device?), I would avoid getting too excited. We're not going to be able to hot-swap games or anything. And the 1-player-at-a-time restriction makes it work identical to you just giving out your password to a buddy.
It is a cool feature that my wife and I will probably use, but the announcement and website are a little misleading until you read them over.
Basically it gives you three things previously impossible:
1. Not having to give out your login credentials to a friend/family member for them to play games in your library
2. Friends/family can now earn achievements
3. Friends/family can save their games to the cloud
Other than that, it's really not giving us any other functionality. Considering that their not being too clear on how the original user activates sharing (i.e. does the device that is to be "shared" need to be set-up with the lender's account first?, does the lender have to activate sharing while USING the shared device?), I would avoid getting too excited. We're not going to be able to hot-swap games or anything. And the 1-player-at-a-time restriction makes it work identical to you just giving out your password to a buddy.
It is a cool feature that my wife and I will probably use, but the announcement and website are a little misleading until you read them over.
They just upped the number. Plus, 2 machines can be used at once with Sony's plan.
I'm not trying to compare, just saying this isn't anything new and what Valve is proposing isn't interesting enough.
NinjamicWZ
Banned
I don't have a family to share games with. I drove them all away by spending all my money on Steam sales.
I use steam on my desktop PC, macbook and on bootcamp on my macbook.
To get this right I can always play on any PC if I'm logged in as me and that does not take from my 10 friend libraries I can add?
So glad they have done this, MS pushing Steam, pushing MS and Sony to now follow up on their digital purchases.
Competition is so good.
To get this right I can always play on any PC if I'm logged in as me and that does not take from my 10 friend libraries I can add?
So glad they have done this, MS pushing Steam, pushing MS and Sony to now follow up on their digital purchases.
Competition is so good.
Palladium Pen and Paper
Neo Member
Clear as day on the original policy doc was that you could always play your own games. 2 was one friend + you.
If I owned Borderland 3 for example you could have jumped in with me using the copy from my shared library.
DerZuhälter
Member
Steam does what XBdONE't
uncledonnie
Banned
Thread desperately needs more info in the OP, tons of conflicting information in the replies.
If this is really just one person in the library at a time, then this is a nice feature but hardly a big deal and not on the scale of what MS supposedly was going to provide.
If this is really just one person in the library at a time, then this is a nice feature but hardly a big deal and not on the scale of what MS supposedly was going to provide.
CassidyIzABeast
Member
Microsoft..Family share better be back by the end of 2014
You read it incorrectly.
When this launches, if you're my Steam Friend then you can send me a request to share my library. If I authorize it, then you can use my library (install games on your computer that I own) and use them as long as I'm not using my library.
Unfortunately, we'll never know what the hell they had planned, since there were too many cooks in the messaging kitchen.
I know a lot of people are still mad at MS about everything and blah blah blah...it just gets old after a while. But whatever man. You do you, I'll do me.
Yep -- definitely.
Gangxxter
Member
Ooops, missed that part of the FAQ :/
That's really a bummer. Hmm, now the whole feature is far less interesting than before.