Valve has launched Steam Families, a streamlined, enhanced version of its existing household sharing tools which is available now in beta form.
Steam Families combines and replaces features previously available through Valve’s Steam Family Sharing and Steam Family View tools, and creates a way for up to six family members to share a combined games library, consisting of titles (including owned DLC) from across each member’s individual libraries, that anyone can access at any time, with a few provisos.
The big caveat is that games are only eligible if developers haven’t opted out of the Steam Families scheme, but with that particular roadblock out the way, the only other key restriction is that a single owned copy of a game can’t be played by more than one person at any time. If multiple people want to play a game simultaneously, multiple versions of a game must be purchased and available in the shared library.
Other major changes being introduced in Valve’s Steam Families overhaul is the ability to play games in a shared library while offline (previously, the family shared required an online connection), and Steam will no longer block access to a family member’s games if they’re online and playing something else.
Valve notes that individual accounts using Steam Families can now have their own saved games, earn their own Steam achievements, and have individual access to Steam Workshop files.
Steam Families also offers a new suit of parental control tools (accessible via the Steam Client, mobile device, or web browser) that enables members assigned as adults to monitor and manage game access to accounts registered as ‘child accounts’. Adults can also restrict child access to the Steam Store, community features, and chat, set playtime limits, view playtime reports, approve child requests for additional playtime/feature access, recover child accounts, and approve a request to pay for a child’s shopping cart.
A more granular breakdown of Steam Families – including details of a lengthy one-year cool down for anyone looking to join a new Steam Family – can be found in Valve’s FAQ, and those wanting to test-drive the new feature ahead of its full release can opt into the current beta via Steam Settings > Interface > Client Beta Participation. From here, select Steam Family Beta from the drop down list and click OK.
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