Steam might be implementing shared games

[dylandylandylan]

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/06/steam-might-soon-let-you-share-your-games-with-your-friends/

 

If this is true, that would be amazing. It would make me buy AAA titles on my PC again. I don't even know how valve would implement this though, being a strong supporter of DRM and supporting the developers for years and years to a lot of negativity until it became the norm.

 

Thoughts?

 

[naca1227]

I don't think it will happen.

[calebp123]

I would be very surprised that steam would do this. Steam hasn't let you share games since the very begging and i don't see them doing it now unless its only to get more people to switch to pc. Even if that was the case I don't know how well it would work.

[EChondo]

I could totally see this being implemented. Of course there will be some sort of restrictions, but I doubt they will be as severe as the Xbox One. Maybe friends can only borrow one game at a time and you won't be able to play that game until he is done? Some people are saying it's going to be timed based, but I don't see that happening. If I bought the license, then I should be able to let my friend borrow that license until I want it back and he should be able to go offline and play it as well. I do see problems with certain publishers that use 3rd party DRM(Uplay, Rockstar Social Club, etc.), so only Valve games might be able to be borrowed at first and I bet a lot of Indie devs will go along with this as well.

 

It could be implemented to counteract the negative press of "at least the Xbox One lets you share games". I remember Major Nelson counteracting

, hopefully he'll shut up about Xbox One's family share plan.

[Nit3Rid3R]

I really do hope they implement this, it would make the PC gaming platform even stronger than it already is! 

[dylandylandylan]

It really is exciting, it will make me, and a lot of people in my position who still play console AND PC switch to PC only. The only reason I buy my titles on xbox and PS3 is because I like to trade with my friends when I'm done. What do people do with games that you've completed 100% that sit in your steam library? I know people with ove r 200 games in their steam library and it's just like UGH MAN let me play on my system! :P

[Snickerzz]

If they did this it would be amazing. i have games on my account that i don't like but i know friends would.

[Bleedman0xx]

 "at least the Xbox One lets you share games".

This was a misunderstanding, the Xbox One won't have any game sharing functionality. It will however let you give your games to people on your friends list.

[Alex(PlayMedium)]

I really hope they will implement this, it would make the PC much more attractive to more people.

But they still want people to buy games, so I think it will be something like this:

 

You can only lend a game for a limited ammount of time(max X hours NOT including download time) so that they can try the game and determine wether they want to buy it or not.

After that time is over the game automatically locks up and brings you to the steam store page of that particular game

You can only lend a game once at a time and once you have lended game X to account Y once you can not lend game X to account Y anymore, but can still lend all your other games to that account and the same game to other accounts.

I am not sure if you'll be able to play the game yourself while your friend is playing it, but I hope so.

 

What do you think of this concept?

[seanhoad]

I don't think their doing this out of the goodness of their heart, but they are currently involved in a law suit in Germany that puts their entire existence in Europe in doubt. I think their trying to attribute ownership of the games to their customers, "of course you own the game, you can even give it to a friend!". 

[Bleedman0xx]

I don't think their doing this out of the goodness of their heart, but they are currently involved in a law suit in Germany that puts their entire existence in Europe in doubt. I think their trying to attribute ownership of the games to their customers, "of course you own the game, you can even give it to a friend!". 

That would be nice. Only time will tell.

[That Norwegian Guy]

The sharing appears to be for sharing your library, not individual games. So if you have GTA 4 and Skyrim on one account and share it with your friend, he will be kicked off from GTA 4 if you launch Skyrim. This is logical based on the line of code mentioning "[,,,] access to your games" in plural.

[Bleedman0xx]

This is logical based on the line of code mentioning "[,,,] access to your games" in plural.

Not unless you can share/lend multiple games to one person.

[Shrubpig]

I kind of like this idea, but I also don't. If they did do this, you would see more people trading games for hats in Team Hatress 2, (lol) and you could probably buy used games from the marketplace or something. But, if they did implement this, they wouldn't have many sales, they probably wouldn't have all of the summer sales, because all of the money lost from the sale of used games would hurt all of the game developers, so they have to sell their games at full retail price to gain the same amount of revenue as before, where they had all of the summer sales and random sales of the week.

[That Norwegian Guy]

Not unless you can share/lend multiple games to one person.

 

Time will tell, but I'm 89.56% sure that it'll be library sharing and not individual games. And I'm like the closest you get to a professional game rumour analyst and between-the-lines dissemination expert  :P

[Bleedman0xx]

Time will tell, but I'm 89.56% sure that it'll be library sharing and not individual games. And I'm like the closest you get to a professional game rumour analyst and between-the-lines dissemination expert  :P

Library sharing would just be a silly idea.

I kind of like this idea, but I also don't. If they did do this, you would see more people trading games for hats in Team Hatress 2, (lol) and you could probably buy used games from the marketplace or something. But, if they did implement this, they wouldn't have many sales, they probably wouldn't have all of the summer sales, because all of the money lost from the sale of used games would hurt all of the game developers, so they have to sell their games at full retail price to gain the same amount of revenue as before, where they had all of the summer sales and random sales of the week.

Nobody said anything about trading or being able to sell your games. This is about possible limited sharing of a game or games between two users. That's it.

[qwertywarrior]

im a bit confused

i share my 3 steam accounts with friends and family since 2009

 some with10+ games in them

[dgtL]

This would be cool!

[Nertballs]

they have no real reason to do this. People on Steam have never been able to lend games, so they don't really get annoyed about it. Consololers however, they were able to lend games and this is being taken away from them even though it's so easy to do on console. it's simply very difficult to implement a way that's fair to the dev, player, and valve themselves, seeing as some games are region locked etc.

[Bleedman0xx]

im a bit confused

i share my 3 steam accounts with friends and family since 2009

 some with10+ games in them

Technically, you're not allowed to do that.

[Shrubpig]

Library sharing would just be a silly idea.

Nobody said anything about trading or being able to sell your games. This is about possible limited sharing of a game or games between two users. That's it.

Ah, didn't get that.

 

I think it would be cool if when you got kicked out of your game because the original game owner started playing it, you could get a deal to buy the game for %25 off or something, promoting the sale of the game.

[Bleedman0xx]

Ah, didn't get that.

 

I think it would be cool if when you got kicked out of your game because the original game owner started playing it, you could get a deal to buy the game for %25 off or something, promoting the sale of the game.

Neat idea. But I don't see Valve doing that. Maybe 10%

[Shrubpig]

Neat idea. But I don't see Valve doing that. Maybe 10%

Any sort of thing to promote the sale would be sweet :D

[qwertywarrior]

Technically, you're not allowed to do that.

 

yeah but nothing really happens

[Bleedman0xx]

yeah but nothing really happens

Nothing has happened because not many will care to take the time to report you.