Steam Family Sharing Now Public :D

MiskyBoyy

Steam Family Sharing is now Public for all users to avail of and enjoy!

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

It allows you to authorize other users/friends/family to play YOUR games on their accounts as long as you aren't playing the game at the same time.

It's basically lending your games to friends like the good old days but without the risk of scratching discs

Go to Steam>Settings>Family and you'll see Authorized machines etc. on bottom right.

2Mad2BeMad

sounds like this is gonna be abused

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

there's gona be a ****load of families that don't share a surname.

or nationality

ShadowHearth

Sounds great and awesome. Another epic feature for Steam. Just need to say how it works in person.

Pushtrak

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Sounds great and awesome. Another epic feature for Steam. Just need to say how it works in person.

You can set what the other person can access. You can have it so its just your library, or you can have other stuff available like your friends or the store page, etc. There is security in the form of you setting up a 4 digit password that allows you to go past this and use the rest of the stuff. That's the basic gist of what I've seen. Someone else'll probably be able to explain more/better, haven't really used it much.

J_E

This is going to be brilliant for members of the family here who want access to my games but I need to use my laptop. Looking forward to seeing how it goes.

ShadowHearth

So I am still able to play Bioshock and my friend can play from my steam Bioshock 2 etc? Even if I am in bed and offline?

dreamers75

Can we both be online at the same time? wasnt clear when mentioned last year.

MiskyBoyy

ShadowHearth wrote: »

So I am still able to play Bioshock and my friend can play from my steam Bioshock 2 etc? Even if I am in bed and offline?

Yeah your friends can play any of your authorized games as long as you aren't playing them at the same time.

dreamers75 wrote: »

Can we both be online at the same time? wasnt clear when mentioned last year.

You can both be on Steam at the same time but you can't be playing the same game at the same time. (as far as I know) Apparently if you're playing a game that you have shared and your buddy starts to play it as you're in the middle of a game it will give you a countdown of 5 minutes to save before auto-exiting.

Nollog

Don't you need to log in on the other person's computer?

smileyj1987

/\/ollog wrote: »

Don't you need to log in on the other person's computer?

From reading up about it you just need to add their username into the sharing part and it's all good . I can't wait to start sharing my games collection with a few mates . It should help convert them to the master race .

Monotype

To clarify: You can't be playing any games in your library if you want someone else to have access.

Potential-Monke

I've read the FAQ, but can't get a clear answer. Can i share my games library with my mate if I'm in Waterford and he's in Limerick? I know we can't be on at the same time, but would they not cop that it's 2 fairly distant accounts with different (real) names?

Monotype

Judging by my tests, you would need to log onto his computer once to authorise it. But outside of that, I don't think names/place have a big factor. Not inside borders anyway, I'd say.

ninja 12

Potential-Monke wrote: »

I've read the FAQ, but can't get a clear answer. Can i share my games library with my mate if I'm in Waterford and he's in Limerick?

Yes ,

I have a friend in Kildare , and he has access to nearly all of my games .

He does not have access to any games that use a third party launcher ( Uplay , Origin etc , ) so can't play games like Assassin's creed .



If I start playing anything , he gets a message telling him he has 5 mins to save and exit ( or something along those lines )


I authorised his pc by logging on using teamviewer , and he's really enjoyed the 7 hours he's put into Tomb Raider

I wouldn't do it for just anybody though , I've known him for years .

Skerries

does his time then get added to yours or does he get his own sub account?

Monotype

Nope, achievements etc. are added to the the account current logged in.