Another good reason to get on steam. Hm
While an obvious positive for players, it will be interesting to see if this turns out to be positive or negative for publisher-developers in terms of revenue generation. The argument being the more people try your game, the greater the chance for a sales conversion. It may help reduce piracy. Perhaps it will be positive for some types of games, and negative for others.
I’ll ask our Steam Rep to add in a trackable metric for a flow where a borrowed game leads to a sale, assuming they haven’t already implemented that.
My brother doesnt play any indie games so maybe if I shared some with him (on steam) and he tried he might start liking them – and I am sure I wouldnt be the only one to do it, especially when the next blockbuster indie game happens. I guess having some kind of multiplayer component could be importnat – because they only 1 person can play it at a time.
Super interesting. I too am really interested to see how it works for devs/publishers.
- I wonder if there’ll be an ‘opt out’ for games?
- I wonder how many machines can be authorised for sharing?
- I wonder if there’ll be a limit on how things are shared? There are some kinds of games that I just wouldn’t bother buying if I knew I could wait a few weeks and ‘borrow’ a friend’s copy (ie: most games that I’d finish in a day or two and never touch again).
Playstation Network already has something a little similar to this going on, though. A PSN account can be authorised on up to 5 consoles, on which it can install the games it has purchased, which can then be played by other accounts on the same console. It sounds like this is more or less equivalent.
According to clarifications I saw posted, you are lending your entire library without limitation. They have also stated that only one person can access the library at a time, so if your friend is using it, you can’t (or can’t until Steam disconnects them).
Post 36.
“That’s right. Only one user may play an account’s games at a given time. There’s a grace period if you’re playing when the lender kicks you.”
Also a publisher gets to decide if their game can be shared or not.
That explains a lot, then. It in fact doesn’t really change anything, they’re just sanctioning what people are already doing, and increasing security at the same time since it (presumably) no longer requires passing around of passwords.
I also doubt that it’ll impact sales too much, since I can’t lend you one thing and play another.
The person with access to my library will be a very lucky person indeed ;).
Hopefully I get in, it’s restricted to only 1,000 people.
Oh I guess thats not as good I thought. I thought you could lend people your games but simply couldnt play those games while someone else was playing it.
It also allows you to play online, with achievements, and access the cloud for saves with your own account. So, yeah, it does change things quite a bit for the people that do this.
It also allows the borrower to Steam chat with the lender. You know, sort of a “This game is awesome!” or “How do I get past level 8?” type of conversation. It’s a small thing, but cool.
It’s a baby sitting mechanism, that’s all. Plenty of parents won’t let their children near most or any video games for the same reason many don’t have TVs. I’m not even necessarily talking about Mormons or Muslims either; Bill Gates is a famous example.
What do you mean by that? You, as the lender, could play any game in your library regardless of what game the lendee is playing. Now, if you choose to play the same game, Steam will kick the person you’re lending to off of that specific game after the grace period (unless they then buy it themselves).
This strategy is brilliant. The benefit to consumers and current Steam users is obvious. It expands their options. And the benefit to future Steam users is also obvious. They can sign up for the service and then enjoy their friend’s and family’s games without having to pay any extra.
Some might wonder what the benefit to publishers, developers, and Valve themselves is. When you think about it, that answer is also obvious. There are few better strategies to convince other people to sign up for Steam accounts. And in the realm of Steam, more users = more profits. A service like this will have current Steam users encouraging their friends and family to sign up for accounts so that they can try out the games for themselves. And once they have an account it is much more likely that they will eventually purchase a game, or that their friends and family will buy Steam games and gift them.
If you look in the FAQ it says only ONE account can play games on ONE account at a time. If someone is playing a game on your account, he will be kicked if you play ANY game in your library.
From the FAQ:
Well, there went that press info -.- Oh well, serves me right for not looking at the official faq.