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Topic on Store talk:Steam

DRM and Family Share Stuff

5
RaTcHeT302 (talkcontribs)

Could someone clear up the whole Family Sharing stuff as to how it works? I'm not sure what else should be added back, there was a ref but it was dead, so I'm not sure which infos are accurate.

RaTcHeT302 (talkcontribs)
Anonymous (talkcontribs)

Sure. To get it working you log into Steam with each account you want to share, go to Settings->Family and click "Authorize this computer" and make sure "Share" is selected for each account you want under "Eligible accounts". It sounds easy but it's kind of a delicate process in practice that's easy to screw up.

Functionally it works as if you own the game with separate saves and such.

As for DRM... the FAQ is kind of out of date and is a bit ambiguous. It says:"No, due to technical limitations, some Steam games may be unavailable for sharing. For example, titles that require an additional third-party key, account, or subscription in order to play cannot be shared between accounts.".

With the newer versions it works with various types of 3rd party key and account DRM now and most MMOs (which it didn't previously due to account DRM being flagged). The main offenders are primarily uPlay games now with DLC account keys. Most others can be shared, even reality pump DRM stuff like Two Worlds and EA account stuff like Alice Madness returns. On release it didn't work with basically anything flagged with 3rd party DRM, which is probably the cause of a bit of a confusion with some people.

EDIT: Of course, the DRM itself is shared and not separated.

EDIT2: As for how it functionally works with someone else using it: if the account's main owner is playing a different game than the one you want to play, or someone else is using a shared game, you are presented the "buy" option instead of install/play.

RaTcHeT302 (talkcontribs)

Many tanks.

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Marioysikax (talkcontribs)

For some reason I feel like mentioning about VAC banning should be noted. If user playing shared game gets VAC banned, ban will automatically go to the account who shared the game for the player. That's why it's good to know only using family share with - well - family and really really close friends. Family share is huge step up from sharing account logins to share the game with friend, but it's still risky.