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Three days after its debut on Steam, Activision disabled family sharing in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (opens in a new tab). The change was made without notification, but SteamDB (opens in a new tab) indicates that the feature was disabled at 12:21 PM ET on October 31st.
Steam’s family sharing feature was fully implemented in 2014 and as the name suggests, enables users of a shared computer – “family members and their guests”, like Steam’s family sharing page. (opens in a new tab) puts it—having their own save games and achievements on a single digital copy of a game. It’s a pretty generous system, allowing up to five Steam accounts to access shared games on multiple devices.
However, it’s not universal: The Family Sharing FAQ states that “due to technical limitations, some Steam games may be unavailable for sharing,” including those that require third-party keys, accounts, or subscriptions.
What’s strange about Modern Warfare 2’s situation is that it launched with family sharing enabled, and it stayed that way for three days before Activision pulled the plug. This suggests that the issue is not a technical one but an intentional choice on Activision’s part. Quietly removing the feature days after launch didn’t sit well with some players.
“You’ve already put two hours of gameplay into the game, so now you can’t get a refund,” wrote chino869 on Reddit. (opens in a new tab). “If game sharing wasn’t allowed from the start I would have bought it on a console instead and the family would have had fun. Also, they might be gearing up for Warzone. It’s time consuming to level up guns and their attachments. The only option. people will have to level up faster is to buy the game or buy a pack.”
“I own the game on Steam and I work, I can’t play as much as my younger cousin can and neither of us want to play on the same account because we got our own level, classes, friends, etc,” hollowinside19 wrote. in the same thread. “This is just pure stupid, this works on PlayStation and Xbox why not on Steam?”
Some players are also angered by the perception that Activision tried to sneak the change in without anyone noticing: “The thing is, they turn it off without saying a damn thing three days after release,” said Designer_Cockroach68.
The lack of transparency predictably leads to speculation and assumptions ranging from “Activision wants to crack down on cheating” to “Activision wants to bleed players dry.” It’s a little academic at this point—the bottom line is that you can’t share Modern Warfare 2 on Steam—but I’ve reached out to Activision for comment on the situation, and will update if I hear back.
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