Steam code suggests sharing games with friends is in the works

Rumours have emerged that online games/software retailer Steam might be working on ways for users to share their digital purchases with friends.

Kotaku reports on a few lines of code dug up from the latest Steam client beta, revealing a ‘shared game library’ that gives users the ability to let other accounts “borrow” a game – as well as recall the game whenever the original owner wishes to play it.

Here’s a look at the code in question:

"SteamUI_JoinDialog_SharedLicense_Title" "Shared game library"

"SteamUI_JoinDialog_SharedLicenseLocked_OwnerText" "Just so you know, your games are currently in use by %borrower%. Playing now will send %borrower% a notice that it’s time to quit."

"SteamUI_JoinDialog_SharedLicenseLocked_BorrowerText" "This shared game is currently unavailable. Please try again later or buy this game for your own library."

No word from Valve on the potential feature as of yet. If it does roll out at some point in the near future, it’ll be interesting to see which publishers/developers participate – or, perhaps even more interesting, if Valve will attempt to make it a mandatory option for all games.