Previously, we shared with you a simple guide on How to Turn Off Steam’s Popup Ads, with a separate post on How to stop steam from launching on startup, In today’s guide, we will be showing revealing to you a step by step guide on to share games on Steam.
Steam is a video game distribution service created by Valve. Steam was launched in September 2003 as a standalone software client to enable the company (Valve) to provide automatic updates for their games and was later expanded to include games from third-party publishers. Presently Steam offers video streaming, server hosting, social networking services, and DRM (digital rights management).
They also provide users with installing and automatic updating of games and community features which incorporates groups and friends lists, cloud storage, and also in-game voice and chat functionality. The software enables users (developers) to use an API (application programming interface) called Steamworks to integrate a lot of Steams functions into their products such as in-game achievements, microtransactions, and support for user-created content through the Steam Workshop.
Initially, even though Steam was created to reach out only to the Microsoft Windows market, they later expanded and produced versions of the software for macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. Furthermore, the app also includes a small selection of content such as design software, hardware, game soundtracks, anime, and even films. Without wasting more time, let’s move into the subject of the day which is, how to share games on Steam.
How to Share Games on Steam
To be able to share games on Steam, you need to first create a Steam family library that allows both family members and guests to play one another’s games while earning their own Steam achievements and saving their own game progress to the Steam Cloud.
Currently, you should be able to authorize family library sharing for up to 10 devices at a given time and up to 5 accounts would be able to use your game library on any of your authorized accounts. To share games using Steam, there are 3 basic steps which include: Safeguarding your account, authorizing your PC for Steam family sharing, and finally request access to share the game.
Step 1: Safe Guarding Your Account
Before you can share games on Steam, the first step is to safeguard your game library so even when you share your account, everything would be protected and still within your control, and to do this you have to enable Steam Guard. Steam Guard provides an additional level of security and also protects your account from unauthorized access. Simply follow the steps below to able to enable Steam Guard on your account.
- Log into your Steam account.
- Go to your Steam Homepage.
- Click on the Username located at the top right corner of the page.
- After clicking, a drop-down menu will appear and under that menu click on Account Details.
- Scroll until you find Account Security and click Manage Steam Guard.
- Finally, you will be faced with 3 options, you can either select to have Steam Guard send codes to your phone or email as a way of safeguarding your account or turn Steam guard off and finally, you can deauthorize all other computers and devices that may have saved your login information.
Among the three options, Steam recommends sending Steam Guard Codes to your phone or email as a form of two-factor authentication to ensure that your account is secure.
Step 2: Authorizing Your PC for Steam Family Sharing
The second step to take before you can be able to share games on Steam is to authorize your PC for Steam family sharing. This step is required to allow the sharing of your selected games. To do this, carry out the steps below:
- Log into your Steam account with a family member or friend’s account.
- After logging in, answer the security questions that will be presented to you.
- Go to Settings.
- From the Settings window, click on the Family tab.
- Locate the Family Library Sharing section and underneath this section, you’ll find Authorize Library Sharing on This Computer. Click on the tick box next to that option.
- You will now find the list of users that can be authorized for game sharing, select the users you would want to share with on that computer, and click OK.
At this point, if the above steps were carried out successfully, you would have successfully shared your games with that family member or friend, which will bring us to the final step (Request access to share game). This step will enable the family member or friend to be able to gain access to your games and I’ll be showing you how this step is carried out.
Step 3: Request Access to Share Game
“Request Access to Share Game” is the final step and after performing this step your games will now be shared on Steam. To share games on Steam, follow the procedures below:
- Log into your Steam account and ensure that your Steam Guard is enabled.
- You should now find a bunch of games in your library that have been added through Steam sharing.
- Select one of the games and click on Play.
- You’ll be asked by Steam to either Buy the game or Request access. Click on Request Access.
- Finally, a confirmation window will pop up requiring you to confirm your option and also confirm your PC name. Confirm the PC’s name and click on Send Request.
By clicking on send request, an email will be sent to the Steam account that enabled sharing with you asking for permission to share the game. The sharer will in turn have to accept your offer and afterward, you should be able to gain access to the game.
N/B: due to technical limitations, not all Steam games may be available for sharing. As an example, titles that require an additional third-party key, account, or subscription to play cannot be shared.