Steam Announces Family Sharing

[Nertballs]

Nope. http://store.steampowered.com/sharing

holy crap that's so much better than i thought it would be!!

[911^NEmeSis]

Just found out about this via Twitter and damn it's awesome!

[rashdanml]

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.

 

Think that's a bit misleading. Implies an entire library is unavailable as long as either borrower or lender is playing a game from said shared library. Doesn't make sense for an entire library to be locked down if only one game is being played from it. 

 

Changing "library" to "game" would make a lot more sense. A game from a shared library can only be played by one person at a time. 

[Guest]

This works very well for me and my brother, I have a rather extensive library of games, I also have a backwards sleeping schedule so 90% of the time my brother is awake i am either sleeping or at work, so he can now have access to my games during this time :-)

 

And despite him being my brother I would never of allowed him full access to my steam account, so this works really well

 

Looking at how it's worded I would assume it is an entire library that is shared, so if my brother was playing Borderlands and I start up Deus Ex it will still kick him, again due to sleeping schedule not a huge problem for me and I can see why Steam would do it that way.

[EChondo]

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/familysharing/discussions/0/846964363936308178/

 

A Valve employer recently answered a question;

 

So theres no way to remotely authorise a device?

 

I was excited when i frist read that this feature was announced but after reading the FAQ from what i understand i cant remotely authorise a device can anyone confirm im correct?

If so im a bit dissapointed that i cant do this, i have a cousin who lives a couple hours away from me and we were just talking about steam adding a feature like this the other day becous we both own a couple games we want each other to try out but neither him nor i can drive halfway across out state to visit one another.

 

 

No, Family Sharing is designed for users who share computers. If you visit your cousin, you'll be able to log in and authorize his computer directly.

So....we can't remotely authorize computers?

 

Because it says so in the FAQ.

 

 

HOW DO I ENABLE FAMILY SHARING ON MY COMPUTER?

Family Sharing is enabled in one of two ways: You can either locally enable sharing in Account Settings, with Family Sharing & Devices, or remotely respond to a user’s Steam request to share your previously installed games via email.

There might be something more to this...we'll have to wait and see how the beta works out.

[ajoy39]

oh look, exactly what Xbox One wanted to do but Steam already has the DRM of in place so they don't get the backlash. But PC master race right? 

[Nertballs]

oh look, exactly what Xbox One wanted to do but Steam already has the DRM of in place so they don't get the backlash. But PC master race right? 

I just think it's pretty boss that they're doing something that will benefit everyone, but they were under no market pressure to do this. I mean, would you stop using steam if this wasn't in place?

[Vitalius]

oh look, exactly what Xbox One wanted to do but Steam already has the DRM of in place so they don't get the backlash. But PC master race right? 

Yep.

Because this approach does not make sense for physical games, but it does for digital ones. Two different things for two different types of markets.

[Anult]

oh look, exactly what Xbox One wanted to do but Steam already has the DRM of in place so they don't get the backlash. But PC master race right? 

 

Steam doesn't have to deal with disc based media. That was the flaw of the Microsoft idea.

[Classics]

Shame it's going to be a select beta, I would have really enjoyed playing Borderlands 2 with my mate..

Does anyone have an idea of when it'll be released?

[ajoy39]

Yep.

Because this approach does not make sense for physical games, but it does for digital ones. Two different things for two different types of markets.

which was the point of having every game install to the hard drive. I can put a steam game on a blue ray disk, but I can't install it to someone elses computer and have it work like that. It was essentially the same idea. you could either download the game or buy the disk to avoid the download time. 

[ajoy39]

I just think it's pretty boss that they're doing something that will benefit everyone, but they were under no market pressure to do this. I mean, would you stop using steam if this wasn't in place?

No, not at all commenting on this from steams perspective I just still think it's shitty that a public outcry, largely from PC gamers who weren't going to buy the consoles and embrace similar DRM schemes anyway, got this taken away from Xbox users but now they're welcoming it with open arms because they are already used to the DRM that comes with it. 

[Vitalius]

which was the point of having every game install to the hard drive.

Which was a really crappy solution with a 500GB HDD that you were fully expected to record video (possibly HD even) to. Very half-baked in my eyes.

Edit: Oh, and you could not upgrade it unless you bought M$'s version. On the Vita, that is... irritating. On a system with those features, that is down right stupid.

[obsidian1200]

Well, it looks like this might not be a perfect system, as per the steam page on sharing:

 

Can all Steam games be shared with friends and family?

No, due to technical limitations, some Steam games may be unavailable for sharing. For example, titles that require an additional third-party key, account, or subscription in order to play cannot be shared between accounts.

 

So GFWL games are probably out for sharing, as well as games that use uPlay. Still cool, but I was kind of wanting to lend dark souls to extended family members...

[ajoy39]

Which was a really crappy solution with a 500GB HDD that you were fully expected to record video (possibly HD even) to. Very half-baked in my eyes.

I'm pretty sure the video is streaming, and would therefore be saved on something like your twitch account, and could therefore be deleted from the hard drive. Regardless 500GB isn't that small. Currently my largest game is 17 GB, I could fit nearly 30 of those on a 500GB hard drive, and console games can include smaller file sizes since they don't have to include, the large textures that PC games do. (don't need to support 2560x1440 for example) so that cuts down on space quite a bit. Not to mention that with a disk and a bluray reader installing games can be done much faster than your standard download so it'd be fairly reasonable for gamers to only keep x number of games that they are playing on their consoles at any one time. 

[Vitalius]

I'm pretty sure the video is streaming, and would therefore be saved on something like your twitch account, and could therefore be deleted from the hard drive. Regardless 500GB isn't that small. Currently my largest game is 17 GB, I could fit nearly 30 of those on a 500GB hard drive, and console games can include smaller file sizes since they don't have to include, the large textures that PC games do. (don't need to support 2560x1440 for example) so that cuts down on space quite a bit. Not to mention that with a disk and a bluray reader installing games can be done much faster than your standard download so it'd be fairly reasonable for gamers to only keep x number of games that they are playing on their consoles at any one time. 

Not what I am talking about. The XB1 is also a media center. It can record HD TV shows IIRC. In fact, the way M$ is selling it (or was), that is something they fully expected you to do. 500GB is plenty for any one thing, either recording HD TV, or downloading games to, but for both? Things would get cramped fast, I can imagine. 

Fair enough, however I would most certainly not call installing games fast on a Blu-ray reader, even if it should be fast.

I installed Metal Gear Solid 4 and that took FOREVER. Yes, the game was over 50GB, but I am sure not all of it was installed, as most of that file size comes from unused things (mostly uncompressed audio IIRC). 

Still, I would expect a minimum of 15 minutes to fully install a 10GB+ game. I downloaded Uncharted 3 over this week onto my PS3 from PSN. The game then must be installed. That is from then to the HDD, and that took over an hour (60GB in total). And an HDD is faster than a Blu-ray drive IIRC.

It would have been a hassle on the XB1 imo.

[ajoy39]

Not what I am talking about. The XB1 is also a media center. It can record HD TV shows IIRC. In fact, the way M$ is selling it (or was), that is something they fully expected you to do. 500GB is plenty for any one thing, either recording HD TV, or downloading games to, but for both? Things would get cramped fast, I can imagine. 

Fair enough, however I would most certainly not call installing games fast on a Blu-ray reader, even if it should be fast.

I installed Metal Gear Solid 4 and that took FOREVER. Yes, the game was over 50GB, but I am sure not all of it was installed, as most of that file size comes from unused things (mostly uncompressed audio IIRC). 

Still, I would expect a minimum of 15 minutes to fully install a 10GB+ game. I downloaded Uncharted 3 over this week onto my PS3 from PSN. The game then must be installed. That is from then to the HDD, and that took over an hour (60GB in total). And an HDD is faster than a Blu-ray drive IIRC.

It would have been a hassle on the XB1 imo.

With a blu ray disk you skip the download process though, and just go straight to install. Yes it is a little slower to read off the blu ray than the internal drive but this is easily equaled out and then some by skipping the download time. 

[Vitalius]

With a blu ray disk you skip the download process though, and just go straight to install. Yes it is a little slower to read off the blu ray than the internal drive but this is easily equaled out and then some by skipping the download time. 

I am not talking about download time at all.

Uncharted 3, from the moment it was completely finished downloading and that I pressed the "Install" button, took about 20-30 minutes to install 13GB of data. It downloaded in 13GB chunks, to be installed separately.

MGS4 had nothing to do with downloading, as it was directly from the disc. 

You have to remember, the HDD's are also 5200/5400RPM IIRC. It reading/writing to itself is still gonna be slow regardless.

[Valinor]

Think that's a bit misleading. Implies an entire library is unavailable as long as either borrower or lender is playing a game from said shared library. Doesn't make sense for an entire library to be locked down if only one game is being played from it. 

 

Changing "library" to "game" would make a lot more sense. A game from a shared library can only be played by one person at a time. 

 

It's not misleading, it's Valve saying that if you play any game from your library then the borrower will be kicked out of whatever game they're playing, even if it's a different game. It'd be nicer if it was on a per-game basis, but this way it's less likely to be abused.