Steam are set to follow in the footsteps of multiple online media distribution companies and begin offering out the ability to share your whole game library with your family. The new service, called Steam Family Sharing enables gamers, whether that be friends or family, to play each other’s games.
Steam Family Sharing allows a user to share their games on up to ten devices, however the library that is shared can only be played by one individual at a time. However, as the owner of the library you’re given priority, so if you fancy a game but your sister is hogging your library, you can kick her off. The dismissal isn’t instant, though, they’ll be given a few minutes to decide if they want to buy the game themselves to continue, or just quit out.
When you’re playing a shared library game, you’ll earn your own achievements, and you’ll have the ability to save your own game progress, so everyone has their own individual file stored in the Steam Cloud. Therefore, if you buy the game later on, you can continue right where you left off.
Steam Family Sharing release
The new feature is currently not yet released, but is coming to a limited beta in September. To sign up you’ll need to join the Family Sharingdiscussion group. Users who opt in to the beta share their whole library, so it’s not just a single game, plus downloadable content (DLC) is also included in the sharing, so just bare that in mind before you go opening your library up.
Let us know what you think of the new Steam Family Sharing in the comment section below. Is it a nice welcomed feature? Or because only one person can play the library at once, does it make the whole thing a bit pointless? Drop us a comment.