Valve Announces Family Sharing On Steam, Can Include Friends

Deathspawner writes "Valve has today announced its next attempt at a console-killer: 'Family Sharing' is a feature that will allow you to share your Steam library with family and close friends. This almost seems too good to be true, and while there are caveats, this is going to be huge, and Valve knows it. As Techgage notes, with it you can share nearly your entire Steam library with family or friends, allowing them to earn their own achievements, and have their own saved games. 'Once a device is authorized, the lender's library of Steam games becomes available for others on the machine to access, download, and play. Though simultaneous usage of an account’s library is not allowed, the lender may always access and play his games at any time. If he decides to start playing when a friend is borrowing one of his games, the friend will be given a few minutes to either purchase the game or quit playing.'"

Re:Steambox

[spire3661]

A Steambox is a PC styled as a gaming console. You generally only play games on the system and it is dedicated to gaming/entertainment. I have 3 Steamboxen.

Re:No co-op

[Jeff Flanagan]

I believe so. Maybe he's talking about split-screen on the same console, which seems to be available on more console games than PC games.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:No co-op

[Anaerin]

Read more carefully. The ENTIRE LIBRARY is shared. And not on a per-game basis, it's all or nothing. And if you (as the sharer) decide you want to play one of your games while someone is using your library, they get booted, even if it's not the same game. And if you're sharing your library with two other people, only one of them can play any game at a time. So you can't play Portal while friend A plays CS:GO and friend B plays HL2.

Re:Steambox

[jxander]

So, you call GP wrong, and then say the exact same thing.

Steambox is a PC designed to hook up to a TV instead of a monitor, with the primary intent of playing games. Valve was the first company to really start pushing this concept, and are currently working on creating a mass produced unit themselves... hence the name is based on their Steam platform. Whether you build it yourself, or buy a pre-built unit from Valve or their partners is immaterial. Whether you limit yourself to Steam games or the other potential vendors (per your list) is also immaterial.

Best part is, GGP was most likely a sarcastic remark. A tongue in cheek reference to the fact that valve has talked about a mass-produced Steambox for years now, yet nothing has hit the market.

Re:No co-op

[Anonymous Coward]

i must correct you.

only when you attempt to play the game they are currently play are they then booted from the game.

Re:Steambox

[wonkey_monkey]

steambox n. pl. steam-box-es pretentious pl. steam-box-en