Scrubbing through the text of some .ini files from the latest Steam Beta update has revealed the possibility that Valve’s distribution service may soon allow users to lend and borrow games.
Steam has permitted gifting new games and selling things like digital coupons or Dota 2 items for some time now, but game purchases have always been locked to a single account. Perhaps all the recent clamor over DRM and used games issues has swayed Valve towards a policy shift.
DRM Done Right
The Steam Trading system already permits players to trade gift copies of games or games received as Extra Copies to other players for in-game items or other games. A borrowing system would be a further step towards expanding digital ownership, and would likely be a boon for Valve in several ways. From a PR standpoint, it furthers the position Valve has at the forefront of user-friendly DRM strategies, and game sharing would effectively let players demo games that that might not otherwise have demos available. Given that a shared game would be fully playable and not feature limited, it also makes a game borrowed in this way more attractive than most demos.
Of course, Valve will surely have to discuss a feature on this scale with other publishers, so we would expect a staged rollout if sharing does became a reality. In all likelihood, Valve’s own library would be available first, followed by games from publishers who consent to allowing their games to be shared. If this feature is implemented, it’ll be interesting to track which publishers permit sharing, and to what extent.
A Less Cluttered Tomorrow
Valve has long been leading the charge toward an all-digital future, and it’s moves like this that have earned consumers’ trust as they’ve gradually pushed further and further in the direction of a fully digital ecosystem. While their policies aren’t that radically different from those proposed by Microsoft for the Xbox One prior to the massive rollback (remember the Family Sharing initiative Microsoft proposed?), their messaging is almost infinitely better. The loyalty they’ve earned from PC gamers is proof of concept for a disc-free future, a future we, personally, would welcome with open arms.
