Steam Family Sharing Beta Has Began

1,000 initial invitations for the trial period of Steam Family Sharing have been sent, details on when it will go live for everyone not yet announced.

Valve has announced that Steam Family Sharing plan, which allows users to share their libraries of games with friends and family.

An initial wave of 1,000 invitations have been sent out through email with instructions on how to participate. Those who entered the beta are encouraged by Valve to give feedback and report bugs they find in the program.

Steam Family Sharing was announced earlier this month. Valve is the first to allow trading. “Our customers have expressed a desire to share their digital games among friends and family members, just as current retail games, books, DVDs, and other physical media can be shared. Family Sharing was created in direct response to these user requests.” Anna Sweet of Valve said in a statement.

Following the Family Sharing plan for the Xbox One that was dismissed in June when it reversed a number of its digital policies. Senior Xbox director Albert Penello said at PAX Prime that the Family Sharing plan Will return.

"I get a lot of mails saying, 'God, please bring back the family sharing.' We'd love to figure out how to bring that back. I still think it was a good idea," Penello said at the time. "Maybe it was a little too soon for some people, but I still think there were a lot of good ideas in there. And we'll bring it back when the time is right."