Not many users have heard of it and even fewer users have gotten to test it out, but Valve has high hopes for its “Steam Family Sharing” program.
Currently only accessible to those invited to participate in the beta testing phase, Steam Family Sharing enables users to share their library of games with family members, friends, or even total strangers. The catch? Only one person at a time can access a shared steam library.
Previously, the sharing plan worked solely on a machine by machine basis. A user could authorize up to ten machines so that anyone with a steam account could access that user’s library of games on any one of those ten machines.
Now, as described in a brief forum post, Valve has changed the program so that only up to 10 authorized users may access a particular library on 10 designated machines. This will, Valve says, allow “lenders more control while reducing the risk of VAC or other bans resulting from an unknown user accessing and abusing shared games on an authorized machine.”
In the future, Valve likely hopes that Steam’s Family Sharing system will be one of the key differentiators that allows its upcoming Steam Machines to stand out among Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo’s latest consoles. Hopefully, the prospect of increased competition will encourage Microsoft to reincorporate its own digital sharing plan back into the Xbox One.
Source: Steam Community