Ask Need: gaming

Valve launches Steam Family Sharing

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Valve launches Steam Family Sharing</td></tr>
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After a <a href="http://askneed.blogspot.com/2014/03/valve-launches-steam-family-sharing.html" target="_blank">beta</a> period lasting over five months, <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" target="_blank">Valve is finally ready</a>
 to give all<a href="http://askneed.blogspot.com/2014/03/valve-launches-steam-family-sharing.html" target="_blank"> Steam</a> users access to <a href="http://askneed.blogspot.com/2014/03/valve-launches-steam-family-sharing.html" target="_blank">Family Sharing</a>. The program gives a 
user the chance to share their entire game library with up to five 
others, with some restrictions in place to ensure the system isn't 
abused.<br />
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At the start of the beta program each Steam user could share their 
library with up to ten other accounts, although that has been changed 
for the final launch to ten <em>devices</em>. In the <a href="http://askneed.blogspot.com/2014/03/valve-launches-steam-family-sharing.html" target="_blank">Steam</a> application 
settings you'll be able to authorize certain machines for <a href="http://askneed.blogspot.com/2014/03/valve-launches-steam-family-sharing.html" target="_blank">Family 
Sharing</a>, and then up to five Steam accounts can access your library 
across those ten machines.<br />

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Only one <a href="http://askneed.blogspot.com/2014/03/valve-launches-steam-family-sharing.html" target="_blank">account</a> can access a shared library at any one time, so even 
if two users want to play different <a href="http://askneed.blogspot.com/2014/03/valve-launches-steam-family-sharing.html" target="_blank">games</a>, only the person who first 
accesses the library can play. The owner of the<a href="http://askneed.blogspot.com/2014/03/valve-launches-steam-family-sharing.html" target="_blank"> library</a> always has 
priority access to their collection though, and if they want to use it, 
anyone else that's accessing it will be prompted to exit the game or buy
 it themselves.<br />

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Aside from these restrictions, <a href="http://askneed.blogspot.com/2014/03/valve-launches-steam-family-sharing.html" target="_blank">Steam</a> users accessing a shared game will
 be able to upload their own saves to the <a href="http://askneed.blogspot.com/2014/03/valve-launches-steam-family-sharing.html" target="_blank">cloud</a>, and unlock their own 
achievements. Even DLC will be available through the program, so long as
 the user accessing it also doesn't own the main game.