Saw this announcement (via Hacker News) — Steam Family Sharing, where you are allowed the share your Steam library to your friends or other devices, similar to what you could do when you purchase a console disc-based game. Currently it's in Beta.
Some interesting points from the FAQ:
- up to 10 devices at a given time via Family Sharing
- only one user can play a game at any specific time. You get prompted to quit or option to buy when someone is playing the game you are currently playing.
One of the Xbox One / PS4 debates is that initially Xbox One would want to be Steam-like, i.e. DRM heavy, no borrowing / lending / second hand market. I didn't really express my own opinion in the original thread, but I thought it's a good thing, if they can manage to push down the price of the game to be Steam-like as well by bypassing the middle man and all those 2nd hand market economy. I don't game much nor do my friends (I guess we are hitting mid-life crisis :) but Steam model works well for me with all those sub-$10 games that just kept on popping up here and here.
And now it just gets better. Those who have relatives or friends who game on Steam — now you can lend / borrow games! You still cannot trade or establish a second hand market though (which I don't think Steam wants that to happen either).
What do you think?
From a PR and goodwill perspective it's obviously great, but surely there would be an increase in costs - ranging from additional server load, potential licensing/royalty costs etc.
I'm curious to know what the financial benefit is to Steam. The most obvious one I can think of is that the borrower likes the game enough to want to buy it. But for single player oriented titles, surely people would be patient enough to wait?