Valve’s Steam service continues to innovate, despite competition coming from Microsoft and Sony later this year with their next-gen systems.
The company has just announced Steam Family Sharing, a new program that will enable people to share their virtual game library with close friends and family members. The beta will launch next week, enabling the first ten thousand users to try it out at no charge.
Through Family Sharing, users can log in to a person’s account on up to ten different devices – for no charge – while still earning individual Achievements and storing separate game progress to the Steam cloud service. Simultaneous usage of an account’s library is not allowed, so if the primary player opts to play a game, the lendee will either have to purchase it outright or quit for the time being.
“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,” Anna Sweet of Valve said in a statement. “Family Sharing was created in direct response to these user requests.”
The only downside is that the service can’t be used by those looking to use the service for theft or fraud purposes.
Source: The Next Web
