Adding a new PC to my house, do I have to buy duplicate games?

[Rabican Shiver]

Hey guys,

I have had a steam account for years, over the past couple years I have been buying the odd game here and there for my kids to play and putting them on my account... fast forward. We have two PCs, and I am adding a third in my kids room. Now we are trying to figure out who gets what account, I will have 3 accounts in the household now, on 3 pcs, and the bulk of the games on just one account. Is there any way around having to buy these games again? Lets say I am playing Hunt showdown on my main account, and my kid wants to play one of his lego games that is also on my main account, is there any way he could do this, without me having to buy that game again?

[Lilim]

Family Library Sharing

Family Sharing allows family members to share games while keeping their accounts separate.

[BJWyler]

One of you would have to play in offline mode through family sharing. That is the only way.

Steam game licenses are only one per account, and they cannot be transferred to a different account. So if all three of you wanted to play a game at the same time, each account would have to have its own purchased copy of whatever game it is.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Rabican Shiver:

Hey guys,

I have had a steam account for years, over the past couple years I have been buying the odd game here and there for my kids to play and putting them on my account... fast forward. We have two PCs, and I am adding a third in my kids room. Now we are trying to figure out who gets what account, I will have 3 accounts in the household now, on 3 pcs, and the bulk of the games on just one account. Is there any way around having to buy these games again? Lets say I am playing Hunt showdown on my main account, and my kid wants to play one of his lego games that is also on my main account, is there any way he could do this, without me having to buy that game again?

If you want them to be independent accounts with out having to shuffle around who can play what, at what time, then yes, you will have to re-buy the games.

I share with my wife and son. If they play a game so often that it interferes with what I want to play, I buy them that game as that shows it is a game worth buying again. We also own several games that I purchased for us all to play together (Terraria, 7 Days to Die, Valheim, ect.) since Family Sharing will restrict access to one person.

As someone who mainly plays single player games, it was less of an issue to share for me. It may be harder for someone who plays mainly MP games.

[TGC> The Games Collector]

Family sharing thing works.

IIRC only one account can access a shared game at a time.
So with multiplayer or co-op games you play together, you'd probably have to buy a copy for each account.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by TGC> The Games Collector:

Family sharing thing works.

IIRC only one account can access a shared game at a time.
So with multiplayer or co-op games you play together, you'd probably have to buy a copy for each account.

Only one account can access the shared library at a time. The downside to Family Share is you share the Library in it's entirety at one time, not individual games in the Library.

So if you have a library with 1k games and share with two people, only one of the three can use a game from the library and the others are locked out of the entire libraries use.

If the main owner starts a game, the one borrowing will get a warning of five minutes, before the game closing on them, as the owner has priority.

[indedragon]

As long as you know your Steam Login and Password it will let you sign on. I have upgraded my computer several times over the years. It always lets me game on the new computer.