Actually, there was a sharing "feature" of your PlayStationNetwork library with up to 4 other people. They reduced it now to only two consoles.
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As someone who did extensive game sharing on the PSN, this was easy to circumvent. You had a 16 user limit on your PS3, and I was part of a few game sharing groups that regularly voted on and chipped in for new PSN titles. You can always then deactivate your PS3 from that account and resell the login information to someone else if you wanted to.
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This is nothing alike, and in fact was done by Steam for awhile. Difference? Steam has no limit. FYI, those 4 people were suppose to be you. :p I guess the fair difference is you 4 can play it the same time. Some stuff is still shared with 4 people too, btw.
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Yeah, at least with the One, there's no need to backdate. Anyone who makes a game for it will know they're part of Family Sharing. This could be interesting.
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Depending on the results of the court cases that are rumbling on in Europe, any games where it is too big a deal may be withdrawn from sale in that region, and previous purchasers could well require compensating for the purchases they made which are deemed to have been in violation of their consumer rights.
Interesting times, and this smells to me like part of Valve's contingency plans, rather than a bounteous gift from Lord Gaben to his loyal and faithful subjects...
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But the functionality is certainly there to (albeit limited to DOTA 2 at present).
I think at least part of it might be an enabling measures which would become legal necessities for Valve to keep trading in the EU if this action is successful.
Both the freedom to re-sell, and the ability to lend games would both almost definitely be prerequisites for their continued operation.
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That is indeed the most worrying aspect of these developments.
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I don't think it has to be implemented in the game. Steam just blocks the game files (if already downloaded) and gives someone else the opportunity to play the game for a limited time. What does this has to do with the game?
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It could be a problem for games which use additional non-Steam DRM such as UPlay, GFWL or proprietory registration-based protection (Torchlight 2, etc).
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i wont borrow a stranger some of my games^^ actually i only know about 12 of them irl and some of them don't use steam as their "games library" so they might have only 1 or 2 games in their whole library.
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+1 A Fresh new generation of "Dood can U lent doze gamez? Can I haz them? Pl0x?"
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yup... "I saw that you have a lot of games can you borrow me one that you don't play? Can you? please? please? pretty please? Can you borrow L4D2? Or A.R.E.S.? Or SpaceMarine? can you?" and after 10 minutes... "Why don't you answer me motherfucker!!!!!!" XD
that should be fun... ;)
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I think it would only work with titles that don't use a third party DRM :P
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All of the posts will be people begging to borrow games. I wonder what the maximum lending time would be.
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MY GAMES ARE MINE!!! MY OWN!! MY..... prrrrrreciousssss!!
Actually, that would be interesting.
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According to the SSA, yes, you do not own the games, you only buy the right to play them.
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I can already see the troll giveaways on here where people will raffle a game they only intend to lend you.
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Wonder how many entrepreneurial types are setting up a ##-cents-a-time lending library system as we speak? Perhaps Steam themselves might even charge a time-based "lending fee" for the service?
This is certainly an interesting development. Is it driven by Valve, or is it their way of insuring themselves against some sort of potential legal problem?
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No other PC digital delivery has such functionality, and until they do, there's little or no genuine market pressure within the PC market to enable it. Consoles have had this since ability since time immemorial, and nobody at Valve ever worried about losing market share because of this. They built their entire system around the non-transferability of titles between accounts. I just don't think there's enough commonality between console and PC markets to merit taking such action - action which I would expect to bite a healthy chunk out of Valve's bottom line...
If anything, the 'bone and PS3 have reduced the ease with which games can be lent or sold to others, by tracking these movements and formalising temporary or permanent transfers of ownership. DRM (whether via additional software installation, server based logging and enabling, or locking of games to an account) is increasing, not decreasing (certainly in the console market, and with more games becoming locked to Steam, Origin and UPlay accounts, possibly on the PC too). Gone are the days of PS2 and XBox 1 where games simply played, whatever and wherever. Nobody at Valve ever gave a flying one about this, and if it wasn't for the current EU case, IMHO they still wouldn't.
That said, Valve ARE planning a move into the console market imminently, with their Steam Machine, so maybe the markets will converge (or at least blur around the edges) somewhere down the track, and this could prove a differentiating factor between the established consoles and their new one. However, if the German case against Valve is successful, I would expect to see PS3 and the 'bone taking similar steps to effect the dropping any sort of restrictions to the transfer of software, either to avoid, or as a result of, similar court action.
Similarly, a successful ruling against Valve could send shudders around the likes of Apple and the various Android stores, all of whom operate a similar system of tying non-transferrable software to a single user account...
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I think it really depends on whether the ruling is going to affect more than just Germany for the near future. If it's just Germany then I think Steam will consider simply pulling service from the region. Less risk on their bottom line with that route.
It's not like Valve is really that active a game developer/publisher nowadays. Steam is their cashcow. I doubt they'll let one region (that already is kind of a headache with laws) risk it.
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If the ruling were applicable to Germany alone, I'd be inclined to agree, but the 2012 ruling on the right to re-sell software licences, upon which the German case is based, is EU wide.
Even if the initial court ruling applies only the Germany, it would be pretty much a foregone conclusion that if the rule wasn't harmonised across EU member states, it would very soon be challenged across them by local consumer protection organisations, and in all likelihood with an identical outcome (and at additional expense to Valve, should they choose to defend each case).
At least if Valve heads it off at the pass by having all the mechanisms in place to enact the ruling ahead of time (as currently appears to be happening), they won't be forced to suspend sales Europe-wide until they have developed the tools required to render their operation legal.
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If you don't know, nextGen consoles means most PC gamers will need nextGen PC (just look at Steam Hardware Survey, most PCs don't have more than 2 CPUs, over half of them don't have more than 4 GB of Ram and there's still plenty of people with less than 1 GB of RAM on GPUs).
So they will have to decide: new, pricy PC with steam sales, or XBOne where I can get game with 10 friends for less than $6...
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By "steam machine" you mean the "steam box"? That's pretty much dead before release...
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If they let me charge for it, I might. Might as well get something from all the game purchases I'm not playing. :)
And even if not, I'll probably open up my library so that my backlog is good for something.
Still, I'll wait for some more details before making plans.
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I don't believe that Gaben would voluntary lose his precioussss money for our gaems, so there must be a significant downside or something in this function.
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You clearly haven't been paying attention. :P
It's a fairly grey area, and hard to tell how things will pan out (and the whole thing could rumble on for a long time), but it looks as if Valve are preparing contingency plans in a number of areas, should things not go their way. They already have a system for selling games (currently only DOTA2) on the community market, and now this...
It goes without saying that EULAs and other such guff are not the be-all-and-end-all of consumer rights in many countries (thankfully), and it's good to see this being challenged.
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I just like to think that their smarter than Sony and Microsoft...
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Not voluntary. Hard to tell you have good prices when MS will show XBOne and say "well, you can share game with 10 frinds, which means you pay around $6 for game at release date, or you can wait until GabeN will give it a -75% sale in a year".
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if it comes to rivalry with MS then that's understandable and very good for the gaemers btw :D
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I really hope that this comes with a way to trade games that are no longer on Steam. I'd love to obtain some titles like Outrun 2006 digitally.
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So what happens if your friend VAC Bans your game @_@
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True but you're not able to play that game anymore at least multiplayer one
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Yes, HIS account will be banned. Your account will be fine.
Valve don't ban a game license, since it's permanently leased to your account.
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If your friend gets VAC'd whilst playing a game that they borrowed from you, their account will be VAC'd I'd say and you'll be fine to continue playing online.
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hey people, great information but for now it's a rumor
"SteamUI_JoinDialog_SharedLicense_Title" "Shared game library"
"SteamUI_JoinDialog_SharedLicenseLocked_OwnerText" "Just so you know, your games are currently in use by %borrower%. Playing now will send %borrower% a notice that it's time to quit."
"SteamUI_JoinDialog_SharedLicenseLocked_BorrowerText" "This shared game is currently unavailable. Please try again later or buy this game for your own library."
Source:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=595606
Also here:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=34550242#post34550242
Check the sources for possible updates!
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