Steam May Soon Allow Users To Share PC Games

Sharing used games seems to be what made or broke the console war this year. Nintendo’s stance was focused on making good games so people won’t give them away. Microsoft’s stance was that they can be shared, but those one can share them with is very limited, or at least it was until the recent 180. And Sony’s stance was sharing a PS4 games was as simple as handing them the game disc. This debate got heated, it had casualties, and it appeared Sony was the victor overall. However, there was one player standing on the sidelines: Steam, the more or less official representative of the PC gaming market.

Steam has been known for having a policy similar to what Microsoft wants to have on the Xbox One; you buy the license to the PC games, as opposed to actually owning them, through Steam. Furthermore, you are not allowed to share the games you buy. This could be changing though, if recent rumours prove to be correct.

Rumours state that Steam users will be able to share games in their library. The feature is very similar to the now defunct Microsoft’s plans for Xbox One – users will be able to share their game library with up to 10 “family members” (which don’t actually have to be members of your family). This rumour surfaced when code spotted by Kotaku said things like Shared Game Library. Like the former Xbox One policy, multiple players will not be able to play the same game at the same time.

Code in the new Steam client beta states that if you try to play a shared game that is in use by someone else, a dialogue prompt will appear stating This shared game is currently unavailable. Please try again later or buy this game for your own library. This new feature does not appear to be mandatory for publishers. Rather, they will most likely have the choice to opt-in to it, or not. Hopefully the majority of them will.

Because Steam and Xbox One’s DRM, internet requirements, and sharing used games policies were so similar, does this mean the outrage against the Xbox One was an overreaction? After all, Steam has had this kind of system for years and it is still going strong with few complaints from the PC gamers. What is the difference between Steam having this kind of game sharing system as opposed to the Xbox One? Feel free to discuss in the comments below.