With game sharing being the hot topic at this year's E3 2013, popular game streaming service Steam appears to be setting itself up to allow users to share their games with one another more easily.
The Verge reports a snippet of code in the Steam digital distribution platform has revealed that Valve, the game developer that works with almost full Steam integration, may be planning to allow their games to be shared between users. The Verge claims to have verified the code's authenticity, originally spotted by a member of the NeoGAF gaming forum. The code references a "Shared game library" complete with a notification that would alert a user when his or her game is currently in use by the person barrowing it.
At the moment, users on Steam can technically share their game by giving out their username and password to a friend. However, that is neither the most efficient nor secure way to go about sharing games amongst friends, even trusted ones.
A game sharing system would make Steam look highly attractive in light of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4's recent public relations battle over the issue of lending, sharing and trading used games. Xbox One placed a few restrictions on their rules game sharing. PlayStation 4 did not and that resulted in Sony looking like the more attractive console choice for next generation gamers.
While steam is mostly used on PCs, valve has been pushing to create a console friendly PC that would run Steam. The "Steam Box" could compete with traditional consoles in the living room or dorm room. PC gamers already have access to the ability to create their own Steam Box ever since the release of Steam's Big Picture Mode. Valve plans to bring its own hardware to the mix sometime in the near future.
Although Verge has confirmed the code's authenticity, Steam has yet to acknowledge the discovery of the code in question. Only time will tell what their plans are for game sharing in the future.
