Currently in beta but access is limited. But you can 'express your interest' by joining this group. This will be fantastic when it rolls out fully.
http://store.steampowered.com/sharing
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
OS Neutral Steam Family Sharing
- Thread starter roadbloc
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Currently in beta but access is limited. But you can 'express your interest' by joining this group. This will be fantastic when it rolls out fully.
http://store.steampowered.com/sharing
How fantastic it is depends upon whether it is based on per title or per account sharing. I just read about it and that was not clear but it sounded like it might be the whole account is tied up while a friend plays and they are cut off if you start playing even if it is a different game than they are.
Again though, it was not really spelled out clearly so if they could play game x on my account while I played game y, that would be pretty cool. If they can only access my account when I am not on it, not nearly as cool imo.
This sounds pretty cool. I do wish it would be per title though. I'm sure the developers would hate that, which is understandable of course, especially indie devs.
It would be great if a Steam friend could message you and ask to sample some of your games, and you could chat while playing or maybe even try some multiplayer. I think that was the idea behind the Xbox One family sharing idea (that got trashed).
But since you have to be offline, I can't imagine ever using it.
But since you have to be offline, I can't imagine ever using it.
I haven't seen this stated anywhere. Do you have a source for that? I might just be blind too...
It's a little ambiguous. From the FAQ linked in the first post:
- 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.
I guess that could refer to not allowing the owner plus more than one other user to share the library at the same time. Or it could mean either the owner or another user can access the library, but not both together.
There's also this:
As the lender, you may always access and play your games at any time. If you decide to start playing when a friend is already playing one of your games, he/she will be given a few minutes to either purchase the game or quit playing.
Does that mean if the owner starts playing the same game, the user will be kicked off? Or does it mean if the owner starts accessing any part of the library, the user is kicked?
If it's the former, I have so many unplayed Steam games in my library, somebody could play one of them to completion every night of the week and I would never notice. For the sake of sales figures, I think the latter is more likely.
None of the FAQS state the account owner has to be offline. That was mostly what I was curious about. The only things we know at the moment are that only 1 of the 10 people + account holder can be playing any of the games at a time. The account holder takes priority. If a non-account holder is in the shared game, they will get a message stating to save/quit before they get booted. I would assume this will be 5-10 minutes but it's unknown.
I'm not sure about that. You're suggesting the owner could play one game while the borrower plays another.
I'm suggesting that would be commercially disastrous, particularly for all those little $5 indie games that take 2 hours to finish.
I think that if the owner wants to play any Steam game, the borrower will be disconnected from any other game. It seems to be geared towards sharing games across multiple accounts on the same computer anyway, so your partner can log in and have access to your library.
Depends on what he meant by the +, but the way it works is only one person, no matter if it's a friend or the owner, can access the library at a time. The owner gets priority, as you've stated.
No. I mean 11 people (10 and the account holder) will have access to the library. Only one of those 11 can be using the library with the library owner having priority. 2 or more people cannot play games from that library at the same time. However if the account owner starts up a game it sounds like it will give a set amount of time (I assume 5-10 minutes) to save/quit before terminating the game.
Makes sense. That's what I meant by "you have to be offline" - if you're online (using Steam), nobody can share your library.
But I can be online to chat, I just can't play a game unless I want to bump people off.
The OS was just released today...Although Valve is trying to appeal to PC gamers yet hasn't even done their research yet. PC gamers love their graphics...I read that that AMD/Nvidia drivers won't even be compatible with their OS...Wtf Valve...really...?
Source: http://8bitgamer.com/updates/valve-announces-steam-os/
Source: http://8bitgamer.com/updates/valve-announces-steam-os/
I wonder how that would work with Steam's offline mode. You could give someone access and then log in in offline and play at the same time.