Steam Family Sharing game lending system announced

Valve has announced a new Steam client feature that will allow users to share games across multiple Steam accounts – Steam Family Sharing.

The feature will become available next week in a limited beta testing phase. No full launch date was revealed.

According to Valve:

Steam Family Sharing is designed for close friends and family members to play one another’s Steam games while each earning their own Steam achievements and storing their own saves and application data to the Steam cloud. It’s all enabled by authorizing a shared computer.

Once a device is authorized, the lender’s library of Steam games becomes available for others on the machine to access, download, and play. Though simultaneous usage of an account’s library is not allowed, the lender may always access and play his games at any time. If he decides to start playing when a friend is borrowing one of his games, the friend will be given a few minutes to either purchase the game or quit playing.

“Our customers have expressed a desire to share their digital games among friends and family members, just as current retail games, books, DVDs, and other physical media can be shared,” explained Anna Sweet of Valve. “Family Sharing was created in direct response to these user requests.”

Anna Sweet

The feature is dependent on a number of conditions being met:

Only one PC may be the recipient of the games at any given time, but ten computers may be authorised;
The user sharing their library has to authorise the second computer;
Games cannot be played at the same time and Steam will keep record of games being shared;
Games that require third-party accounts or use a single account cannot be shared;
Games will be added to the Family sharing program on a case-by-case basis; and
Players borrowing access to the game will be notified if the game’s owner wants to play, giving them time to save their progress.

This would be extremely useful in groups of friends who want to share games that others have bought online, or in a household where one game is bought and shared between the family.

It is unclear whether Valve will implement a child lock to allow parents in a household to choose what games may be borrowed by their children.

Valve’s Family Sharing beta will kick off next week and you can express interest in joining the beta program by signing up to the Steam Family sharing group.