Steam's Family Sharing Unleashed Upon the World

Last September Valve announced a program allowing family members to share their digital library with one another. The Steam Family Sharing feature brought the ability to share games without the need of a physical disc, something that had been sorely missing from the digitally distributed gaming world.

Steam has been running the Family Sharing Program in a closed beta for the past several months but now it’s all grown up and available to anyone with a Steam account. Now that it’s out of beta anyone can begin sharing their library with up to ten authorized computers.

It’s fairly straightforward to get started, and it won’t take long for family members to be playing your games. Anyone can send a request to access another member’s catalog, and once approved by the owner, they can play almost any title in member’s library. There are some limitations: region restricted titles, games that require third party keys and subscription-based services will be unavailable for sharing. There are also a handful of titles that are not authorized by the developers for Family Sharing but those could change at a future date. And possibly the biggest caveat is that only one person can access the shared account at a time; the title’s owner always gets priority when it comes to playing games.

It’s performed well in beta and now that it’s available to the public we suggest checking it out. Steam Family Sharing is a welcomed change in the world of digital distribution and it may just be the change we’ve needed to shake up the market.

Share this article:

Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
LinkedIn
Share on tumblr
Tumblr
Share on email
Email
Share on whatsapp
WhatsApp

Recent Posts

Marvel 1943 cover art. Captaint America and Black Panther Gaming News

Get a Closer Look at the New Black Panther and Captain America Game | Marvel 1943

It’s been a while since we first got word that the great Amy Hennig was working on a new Black Panther and Captain America game. After creating something like Uncharted, …

Mad Catz Strike 11 Keyboard. A keyboard with red and black keys Hardware & Tech

Mad Catz S.T.R.I.K.E. 11 Mechanical Keyboard Impressions

I have been on the search for a decently priced wireless keyboard and there is no shortage these days. Our friends over at Mad Catz sent over their S.T.R.I.K.E. 11 …

Hardware & Tech

Level Up Your Set Up with Nanoleaf

Nanoleaf has been one of the market leaders in the gaming lighting space for years now. They have a variety of products to level up not only your office space …

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Gaming News

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and What’s Next For Xbox | Let’s Chat

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is the next big game set for release and the rumor mill has been set ablaze with talks of Xbox going multi-platform. We take a few …

Gaming News

The Pimax Crystal 8K VR Headset | CES 2024

AR and VR were some of the bigger topics during this year’s CES. Last year I was able to go hands-on with the Pimax Portal but this year it was …

CES

NVIDIA Announces 40 Series Super Cards and More at CES 2024

A year can’t go by without a huge announcement from NVIDIA. During CES 2024 in Las Vegas, NVIDIA announced an upgrade to its 40 series cards. The GeForce RTX 40 …