Family Sharing is a pretty awesome feature on Steam: in short, it lets you share your game library with friends and family. So, for example, if you all want to play Helldivers 2 with your brother and mother, you don't have to buy it separately – at least as long as you don't want to play at the same time. However, that restriction has been lifted today as Valve announced a fairly major overhaul of the system, combining Steam Family Sharing and the Family View parental control system into one big package called “Family View.” Steam Families.
Steam Families works very similarly to its predecessors, but with some improvements. The biggest one is that family members can play different games at the same time.
Under the old system, if someone played a game from your library, no one else could use that library at the same time. Now that limit is gone: you can't play the same game at the same time, but you can play something different. Each member of the family group also has their own individual savegames, achievements, workshop files, and other features.
With the new parental controls, parents can also monitor what and when their kids are playing on Steam, and access “playtime reports” so the adults in the room can see exactly what the kids are up to.
There's also a new option designed to make it easier for kids to buy games: instead of buying a gift card for their kids or handing over the credit card (what if someone once wrote a very large bill in my mother's name). , I can tell you that's not a good idea), child accounts can simply request that an adult account in the family group pay for everything in their cart. Adults can then approve and pay for the purchase via their mobile device or email. The games will then be added to the child's Steam account.
The Steam Families FAQ provides a real-world example of how the new system works:
Let's say you are part of a family of 4 members and own a copy of Portal 2 and a copy of Half-Life. Any member can play Portal 2 and another member can play Half-Life at any time. If two of you want to play Portal 2 at the same time, someone else in the family will need to purchase a copy of the game. With this purchase, the entire family will have two copies of Portal 2 of their own, and any two members can play at the same time.
This example also explains another new aspect of Steam Families: pooling copies of games. Previously, library sharing was a 1:1 exchange between two accounts. Now Steam Families will automatically bundle their Steam libraries, so even if Kids A and B don't own Portal 2, they can seamlessly borrow copies from Parent A and Parent B.
Of course, there are still some limitations to the new system, and it's not hard to see how this could lead to headaches, heartbreak, and possibly a lifelong blood feud. Adults can leave a Steam family at any time. However, if they do this, they will have to wait a year before they can create or join a new Steam family. (Hey, maybe the family that plays together stays together.) Worse, but potentially funnier: adult family members can kick any other family member out of the group – but the spot that person occupied also has a cooldown of one beforehand be refilled every year. Sorry new stepmom, no balatro for you.
So imagine mom and dad get into a conflict over their turn to do the damn dishes and one of them exercises the nuclear option and kicks the other out of the Steam family. The next day all is forgiven – but unfortunately you won't share your Steam games until another 364 days have passed.
There's even more potential for chaos between siblings: if your stupid brother gets banned for cheating while gaming, that's too bad, buddy, you're banned too. As someone who has a sibling, I can say with 100% certainty that I would have banned my sister from every game she owned just to mess with her. And yes, now that we are both adults, I would be sorry, but would I be forgiven? That is a completely different question. It's worth noting that Valve had one Similar guidelines exist with Family Sharing for years, but the updated language leaves no room for maneuver: both accounts will definitely be blocked.
The one-year cooldown is not universally popular. But the ability to play multiple games simultaneously on a shared account is a huge success.
Of course, these boundaries are necessary to combat smurfing and ban-dodging, which are real issues far more likely to prove problematic than hypothetical family disputes. And overall, the reaction to the system seems to be mostly positive. There are complaints that the new system doesn't allow people in different countries to share accounts and games – Valve said Steam Families is “intended for a household of up to six close family members” and multiple people opting in to the new one The system says it excludes people who live in other countries – and the one-year cooldown isn't popular everywhere. But the ability to play multiple games simultaneously on a shared account is a huge success.
Steam Families is currently in beta testing, so it's possible that some aspects will be adjusted before it's fully rolled out. In fact, Valve said in the announcement that as it monitors usage of the new feature, it may “adjust the requirements for participation in a Steam family or the number of members over time” to ensure usage is consistent with Valve's intent hold, which appears to be shared with family but not friends – although it is currently unclear how a family member can distinguish it from a friend.
To try out Steam Families now, you'll need to be signed up for the Steam Client Beta: To do this, go to your Steam Settings menu, select the “User Interface” option, then select “Steam Client Beta” from the drop-down menu “Participate in the client beta”. For a more detailed breakdown of what it's all about, check out the Steam support page.
