What are guest passes?
Guest passes are a new Steam feature; they are given out to users when they purchase certain products and enable them to share a temporary license for a game with their friends who do not own it. Their friends are then able to play the game for a limited time period before the pass expires. After the pass expires the friend will have the option of purchasing the full version to continue playing. Think of guest passes as a way for you to easily let your friends try out your favorite games with no commitment or expense on their part.
What games will guest passes be supported for?
Initially guest passes will be supported only for Day of Defeat: Source. In addition, guest passes will initially be granted only to a small set of users invited to a private beta. After the beta period ends guest passes will be rolled out on a larger scale.
How do I know when I have guest passes available to give out?
You will receive a message at the time of purchase or the next time you logon to Steam notifying you that you have guest passes to give out and providing a link to directly open the management dialog. In addition, you will see a guest passes column in the My Games list telling you how many guest passes are remaining for any games which you have guest passes available. Finally, you may open the manage guest passes dialog directly from the Games menu in Steam.
How do I get guest passes to give out?
You get guest passes by buying certain supported games. Valve is currently launching guest passes as a limited invitation only beta. You may be contacted by Valve and invited to participate in this beta. After the beta period ends guest passes will be rolled out on a larger scale.
Will my guest passes expire if I don't give them out quickly enough?
Guest passes have a one month lifetime from the time they are granted to you. If you have not given out your guest passes after one month they will expire and you will no longer be able to send them to friends.
How many guest passes will I get when I purchase a game?
After the end of the beta period we expect to support guest passes for a small number of games. Existing owners of the games will be given guest passes as well as those who purchase the game for the first time. How many guest passes you get per game will be decided on a game by game basis.
Can I ever get more guest passes after I use those I get on initial purchase of a game?
Initially we will only be supporting an initial fixed number of guest passes on purchase. However, in the future we may allow users who have previously used their guest passes up to get a new set in some manner. The mechanics for this are not yet determined but would aim to reward those users who are actively recruiting new players.
What will my friend see if I send him or her a guest pass?
When you send a guest pass to a friends email address they will receive an email with information on installing Steam and a link to click in order to accept the guest pass and tie it to their account. If you send a link to an existing Steam user who is already in your friends list they will receive this email but the guest pass will also be immediately tied to their account and they will receive a pop-up in Steam (immediately, or when they next login) informing him or her that you have sent a guest pass.
After I have received a guest pass how do I use it?
If you have received a guest pass email you should begin by installing Steam if you don't already have it. Once Steam is installed you can click the accept link in the email to tie the guest pass to your account. At this point Steam will pop-up a message telling you about the guest pass and how it works. Having accepted the guest pass does not start the timer on your free trial but simply add's an entry for the game it applies to in your My Games list. You can then activate the guest pass from your My Games list as soon as you are ready to start your trial.
How long can I play a game using a guest pass?
Each game in the guest passes program may offer a different duration for the free trial license it generates. We expect the duration to usually be on the order of 1-5 days. The time left on your license starts counting down from the time you activate (not the time you accept) the guest pass and you will see the time left on the license displayed within the My Games list or Mini-games view in the Steam client.
Does the time I spend downloading a game take time off my trial license?
Yes, however, Valve tries to allocate a reasonably large amount of time for each game involved in the guest passes program and the size of download is one factor in deciding how long the license will last.
I sent a guest pass to a friend, but they never received it. What now?
You can resend guest passes in case your friends email invitation was lost. If you are resending to a new (or corrected) email address you should be able to resend immediately. If you are attempting to resend to the same email address the Steam system will make you wait 24 hours to prevent spamming of users. When you resend a guest pass the previously generated email will become invalid and the accept link within it will stop working, your friend will need to use the latest version of the email when accepting the guest pass.
