Steam Announces Family Sharing
Ever wanted to lend your digital games just like your physical discs? While most have gotten used to the fact of digital rights generally being locked to single device, it would be nice to have more freedom. So here’s a little something! Valve announced that Steam will soon have a Family Sharing feature, in which you’ll be able to let other Steam accounts (your close friends and family) play your game library. While you lend your library to your friend, they’ll be able to download and play any game you own (unless the publisher specifically forbids it). If you start up a game though, it’ll start a countdown timer on your friend’s PC, telling them to save and quit or buy the game to continue playing. Sign up to the Steam group here to enter for a chance to get beta access next week!
Is this the best solution? No, the best would be able to lend out specific games at a time, not your whole library, but I imagine that was a much harder pill to get publishers to swallow. Perhaps Valve will allow the more “radical” features on their games, as a way to show publishers how it’s done, but we’ll have to see. Fun times for digital games!