Steam :: Steam News :: Introducing Steam Families
steamcommunity.com
Hello! We are excited to announce Steam Families, available today in the Steam Beta Client. Steam Families is a collection of new and existing family-related features. It replaces both Steam Family Sharing and Steam Family View, giving you a single location to manage which games your family can access and when they can play. Create a Steam Family To get started, you can create a Steam Family and then invite up to 5 family members.

When you join a Steam Family, you automatically gain access to the shareable games that your family members own and they will also be able to access the shareable titles in your library. The next time you log in to Steam, this new ‘family library’ will appear in the left column as a subsection of your games list. You maintain ownership of your current titles and when you purchase a new game it will still show up in your collection.

Best of all, when you are playing a game from your family library, you will create your own saved games, earn your own Steam achievements, have access to workshop files and more.

Family Sharing enables you to play games from other family members’ libraries, even if they are online playing another game. If your family library has multiple copies of a game, multiple members of the family can play that game at the same time. For a more detailed look at how Family Sharing works, see the FAQ below.

Also adds parental controls for children’s accounts. Parental controls let you:

  • Allow access to appropriate games
  • Restrict access to the Steam Store, Community or Friends Chat
  • Set playtime limits (hourly/daily)
  • View playtime reports
  • Approve or deny requests from child accounts for additional playtime or feature access (temporary or permanent)
  • Recover a child’s account if they lost their password

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/11954402

  • cron@feddit.de
    0·
    3 months ago

    This looks great! It would be even better if they improve the handling of multiple accounts on the steam deck.

  • kugmo@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    Apparently you need to be in the same country to do family sharing now, and the 5 minute get off my game bro button doesn’t replace the play button anymore. It’s simply just greyed out.

  • Localhorst86@feddit.de
    0·
    3 months ago

    Family Sharing enables you to play games from other family members’ libraries, even if they are online playing another game

    That’s a great first step, but I would also like to be able to play another game from my own library on another device (e.g. steam deck and pc) at the same time

    • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyzOPMEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      You could make a second account, add it to your family, and use one account for your PC and one for your deck.

      • Localhorst86@feddit.de
        0·
        3 months ago

        That’s one possible workaround, but that will, obviously, break stuff like cloud saving and achievement progress. So, not ideal, but probably viable for some situations.

  • EvilCartyen@feddit.dk
    0·
    3 months ago

    This is incredible news, I’ve been using the deck as a console, and when the kids were playing something I’d be logged out, so this really is a game changer.

  • figaro@lemdro.idEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    I’m curious how aggressive it will be at limiting families who live in different houses from sharing games.

    The article specifically states that it is meant for “same household” families. But will it actively prevent that?

    • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyzOPMEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      I don’t think so, at least not yet. They might try to prevent it later if it starts getting widely abused.

    • Midnitte@beehaw.orgEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      Hopefully, they’re not as aggressive as Netflix - can’t even share a login with the in-laws across the street…

  • dukatos@lemm.ee
    0·
    3 months ago

    I hope it will work better than current family. There is so much friction to share one game with your kid that I almost gave up.

    • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyzOPMEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      You could before, but any games with steam DRM (which is most of them) would lock your library if your spouse was using it.

      • pmmeyourtits@ani.social
        0·
        3 months ago

        *Most people could. My library has some kind of fucked issue. Had to reach out to steam support who were absolutely useless.

    • BougieBirdie@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      The previous ‘family sharing’ feature allowed for you to share your games with someone else, provided you were not playing any games at the moment.

      This new family sharing seems to allow you to share your library even if you’re playing another game.

  • Midnitte@beehaw.orgEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    Really awesome news!

    The previous system was rather arcane - this bodes much better for the father in law that doesn’t know how texting works but does know how RTSes work…

  • Chewy@discuss.tchncs.de
    0·
    3 months ago

    Being able to play game from a single library simultaneously is awesome and how it should’ve been from a usability perspective.

    Sadly this change will make it impossible to simply share games with someone specifically, since it’s now required to be in the same Family Share, which is a strong commitment. For sharing games in a single friend group, this change won’t change much (unless someone still wants to share with their family). The changes make game sharing work more like intended, in other words family share.

    • DarkThoughts@fedia.io
      0·
      3 months ago

      It was never really meant to be used like that though. They might’ve tolerated it but in the end they can get rid of it while adding further functionality for actual family sharing.

      • Chewy@discuss.tchncs.de
        0·
        3 months ago

        Agreed. The new restrictions are similar to what Spotify is doing with their family plan and is way more useful for it’s intended purpose.