Steam to Allow Free Game Sharing

[Fidel_Castronaut]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24063613

In an explanation, posted to the Steam website, Valve said free sharing would be enabled when someone authorises a computer to access their games. Other Steam members can request authorisation if they see that a friend or other family member owns a game they want to play.

...

However, said Valve, players will not be able to play the same game on the same account at the same time. Shared libraries can only be played by one person at a time. Co-ordination and synchronisation of saved games and other achievements would be carried out in the Steam Cloud, said Valve

More Information: http://store.steampowered.com/sharing

[Plu]

I saw this in the news and it looks like a very interesting idea :)

[Fidel_Castronaut]

I saw this in the news and it looks like a very interesting idea :)

At the very least it's a big "fuck you" to Microsoft and their pay to share MO.

Just goes to show that it's possible to share games for free and still keep revenue ticking over. Will be interested to see the results after it's been implemented for a while.

[Plu]

Well, it shows that they're willing to test whether sharing games for free is a possible while keeping the revenue coming in. No guaruantuee that it'll work :)

At the very least it'll stop me having to switch accounts when I want to play something on my girlfriend's account or she on mine.

But I see good reasons why this could work just fine. Especially for indie games. Which somehow seem to more and more become Steam's primary thing. But maybe that's just me and I dislike of most big titles.

[Jason78]

Well done Steam for finally implementing something that we've been doing with boxed copies for years.

Way to catch up to the status quo.

[SGOS]

Well done Steam for finally implementing something that we've been doing with boxed copies for years.

Way to catch up to the status quo.

:rollin:  Yeah, some innovation, ain't it?

I'm sort of tiring of gaming, right now.  I'll probably get GTA IV when it hits the shelves, but I've bought a few games lately that weren't much fun.  The most recent was Far Cry III, and part of the reason was because of Steam.  After signing up for the "service" (actually, it's more like a required encumbrance) and after installing a bunch of shit on my computer just so I could play the game, Fry Cry III turned out to be buggy as Hell, at least on my computer, with blue screens and freeze ups.  The game itself had too much "clever" stuff added to it that didn't make the game more fun.  I played maybe 3% of Far Cry III, and gave up somewhat frustrated, but mostly just plain bored.  If I have to do a bunch of extra stuff like installing Steam and whatever spyware comes with it, the game is going to have to be more exciting than that.

Steam seems like a step backwards.  I can see their concern about pirating, although honestly I wouldn't have the slightest idea how to do that; Nor does it seem worth the effort, but software companies seem obsessed with the issue.  Yeah, I see their point, but their solution makes games less desirable to buy, at least for me.  That might hurt them in the end.  I don't know.

[Plu]

I can see how Steam can be a downside when you don't game much or only have a few games, but once you start collecting a library and really get into gaming it's great :)
It keeps all your stuff up to date, lets you access all your games basically anywhere, offers great deals and sends reminders whenever something you want is on sale, and some other stuff.

[Jason78]

Steam seems like a step backwards.  I can see their concern about pirating, although honestly I wouldn't have the slightest idea how to do that; Nor does it seem worth the effort, but software companies seem obsessed with the issue.  

You can?  Did you know that oppressive policies like the one enacted by Steam actually encourage piracy?

Let's say I have two steam games.  I want to play one, while my son wants to play the other.  How do I play both of my games at the same time?  At the moment, the only way to do that is to "patch" the software so it works properly.

[Plu]

Yep. That whole thing has been annoying, and I'm glad they're fixing it now.

[Hydra009]

If I have to do a bunch of extra stuff like installing Steam and whatever spyware comes with it, the game is going to have to be more exciting than that.

:-s

[frosty]

I still remember when Steam was not used by a lot of people. I would say overall it's gotten a lot more bloated but it's still a good product. Keep in mind though that Steam sometimes feeds rumors through the pipeline to get potential users excited and signed on to their service. Many rumors I can vaguely recall being announced never happened, all for marketing purposes. I have two accounts, but one of them has old generation HL1 games so I see no purposes in crossing them over with my modern account and games.

I have quite a bit of games on my main account. I have not barely put a dent in them. It's time to play a bit more video games.

[wolf39us]

I would definitely love to take advantage of this feature!  My friends have a ton of games

[ParaGoomba Slayer]

Eh, honestly don't care that much considering how good Steam sales are already. No real need for game lending if they only cost $5.

[Hydra009]

Eh, honestly don't care that much considering how good Steam sales are already. No real need for game lending if they only cost $5.

No kidding.  There are very few games that I really want to play that my (hypothetical) friends have and I don't, anyway.  So, not very useful to me either.

Even so, this is me every time I log into steam.

But I have I system.  I store my credit card in a safe with a piece of brain meat that contains the memories regarding the location of the safe, the lyrics to Imma Be, and differential calculus.  It's worked wonders so far.