How to share Steam games with my son...

[Anomaly1964]

How can me and my son share different games we have on Steam so we don't have to buy the same ones over and over...?

 

[Oyeve]

On the same or different systems? All that really needs to be done is to have the same ID and PW on either a different profile or even a different system. Just have him create different save files for each game.

 

[gorobei]

http://store.steampowered.com/promotion/familysharing

 

[Merad]

Family share works great as long as you both don't want to play the same game at the same time.

 

[Anomaly1964]

Family share works great as long as you both don't want to play the same game at the same time.

Thanks guys!

 

[ImpulsE69]

Is it same game or any game on an account. All the posts I've seen says that if someone is playing "any" game on your account, then you can not access any game on your account. Or that it is not on a game by game basis, but rather account basis.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Family share works great as long as you both don't want to play the same game at the same time.

I've wondered how that works. If I wanted to play co-op Portal 2 with my son, would it require 2 copies (even if we are in the same house/IP)?

 

[Topweasel]

Is it same game or any game on an account. All the posts I've seen says that if someone is playing "any" game on your account, then you can not access any game on your account. Or that it is not on a game by game basis, but rather account basis.

I have sharing set up with my BiL and based on a single conversation I have had with him asking if I was done for the night when I logged off a game that he wasn't trying to play, my belief would be that it is whole Library based.

But that might also be because of in home streaming. I haven't tried but now that you can be logged onto multiple devices at once. I think only one game instance per library can be played at a time.

 

[CuriousMike]

Be aware that some games won't share - I don't know what the magic is.
It seems like 90% share, but some games won't - the only example I can think of right now for us is Driver San Francisco.

edit:
There's a thread on it:
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/familysharing/discussions/0/792923683796413789/

 

[MonKENy]

family sharing is only good if any 1 person is playing at a time.

If you are the main account holder (A) and open access to secondary member (B) it goes like this.

If A isnt playing anything in the library, at all, then B can use it
if B is playing a shared game and A gets on it will kick B out of his game

no 2 (or more) people can use the library at any given time

And also no you cant both use the same copy of a game to play multiplayer.

That being said if you buy games through GOG Galaxy (or just GOG website directly) They are 100% DRM free meaning you can install and run on multiple computers at the same time. GOG doesnt have the expansive library steam has but its growing and sometimes the sales are just as good as steams.

Hope this helps,

 

[SERPENTINE]

I see another member posted it above, but here it is again!

 

[frozentundra123456]

Another option is to use offline mode. If you use the same account on two different computers, one user signs in, downloads the game and goes into offline mode. Then when you restart, stay in offline mode and you can play the game offline. The other user can then sign in to the same account and play the game online or go into offline mode as well.

This way, both users can play one game at the same time, but at least one of them will have to be in offline mode. Just be aware that you can only go into offline mode while you are online. Also, be aware that some games use cloud saves, which can mess up the saves if one player is playing offline and the other online.