Play Steam games through LAN on 1 account

[Serchant]

Is it possible to play steam games on 1 account on 2 PC at the same time? Me and my brother wanted to play games together via LAN but I don't want to buy the same game twice. Is it possible?

[Teksura]

Not in the way you describe. While Steam does allow you to share a library with family members, you may not play the game simultaneously.


Although thinking about it, there might be a way to trick the system. Try this:

Let's say you own the game. Your brother logs into Steam and launches it. You will need to have already set up Steam Family sharing. You then either keep Steam in offline mode or entirely disable your connection to the internet (but not your LAN). (If the first does not work, maybe the second will).In theory this might work, but then again it might not. I don't know, I've never tried. Family sharing is not supposed to work like this because when you launch the game it's supposed to kick him off. But if you're offline, Steam servers shouldn't know they're supposed to kick him off I guess? And since you're connecting via a LAN anyway...


It's worth a shot I guess.

[Ｎｅｃｏ(Jibanyan)]

I just found this and it worked!!!
So I just disconnected my main steam client from my internet and was in offline mode but the pc was not disconnected from the wifi I use, soo I launched Dirt 3 in offline mode but the games still work fine and online modes works, then I launched my other laptop and loged in with my other acc for family share and launched Dirt 3 and as a result I could play Steam family shared games on 2 pc at the same time!! soo now I can play LAN games for free without even buying the same game again!!

[Ｎｅｃｏ(Jibanyan)]

thx Teksura

[LILI]

Thanks also Xx_Big Shaq_xX !
It works perfectly in LAN with the game Civilization 6.
Not even needed to set up a "family sharing account: I just started Steam in offline mode for both my desktop and laptop, created a LAN game, and was able to join the game using the same account...

[The Nameless One]

Even now in 2024, I tried this with Civ 5 and it works. I just disconnect from the internet completely when launching in offline mode on both computers and reconnect when both are in and setup a Lan game.
I'm of the belief that no more than one purchase per household should be expected. That'd be like board game companies expecting families to buy 5 copies of monopoly so the whole family can play. I hope they don't screw us on this workaround.

[Stoeprandtegel]

Originally posted by The Nameless One:

Even now in 2024, I tried this with Civ 5 and it works. I just disconnect from the internet completely when launching in offline mode on both computers and reconnect when both are in and setup a Lan game.

Did you use a single account or two accounts with family share?