Steam Family Sharing: read the fine print

Last night (11 September 2013), Valve unveiled their Steam Family Sharing scheme, which allows games from your Steam library to be shared with up to 10 other users. The feature will enter into a beta testing phase soon.

At first I was quite excited about the news, thinking it meant I could lend a supported game from my Steam library to a friend or family member, and they can merrily play that game until I decide I want to “reclaim” that game and play it myself.

I thought that I could play any of the other games in my library without affecting the game borrower. Well, as was pointed out to me, I didn’t read the fine print (thanks Weeman360).

The actual system operates by only allowing one user access to an account’s library of games at any time. Simultaneous usage of an account’s library is not allowed, and it is unclear how the borrowers will fight it out for access to the library if they try to play simultaneously.

The primary account holder will always have access to their library, and launching any game will immediately kick out a borrower from whichever game they are playing.

While this is a disappointing realisation – it was my own misunderstanding of the initial announcement and not Valve being misleading.

This is obviously not how traditional physical format game lending is done. Gamers don’t lend their entire library of games to a friend/family member who only wants to play one; and then reclaim the entire collection when they want to play a different game.

For families it makes even less sense – it’s practically pointless. The scenario: dad is the Steam account holder and has a wife and two kids. The result: only one of them can play games at any time on any of the computers in the house.

How does this improve the game lending situation among families at all? Obviously it doesn’t.

The Family Sharing system is probably a more formalised version of what some users are already doing – sharing account access details between themselves.

It’s essentially the same scenario, except it removes the risk of having a friend or family member buy a game through your account, or ruining your stats.

Indeed, through the Family Sharing system, the borrower will be able to accumulate achievements, stats, and other gameplay rewards attached to their own account, and keep their progress stored in their Steam cloud.

While it’s disappointing that the system is not as open as I initially thought, it suppose it makes sense from a business perspective.

I have a number of games I’ve not played for ages on my Steam account. Some I’ve played once and probably won’t play again. If I could simply lend these games to my friends while simultaneously accessing other games on my account, then there would be lots of lost sales for Valve and its partners.

If you are seriously disappointed by the way the Steam Family Sharing system was designed, then you can get in on the petition action – Valve loves petitions: Petition | Valve Corporation: Allow Steam Family Sharing users to access DIFFERENT games at the same time | Change.org

What do you think of Valve’s Steam Family Sharing scheme? Let us know in the comments below and on the MyGaming forum.