Valve’s new Steam Families feature is now available for everyone following a beta launch earlier this year. With Steam Families, parents are able to share games with their families, manage parental controls for their children, and approve requests from their children to purchase games on Steam.
The big improvement in Steam Families compared to Valve’s previous Family Sharing setup is that multiple people can play games from a shared library at the same time. So if I play Balatroand my partner, who is part of my Steam Family, wants to play Repairman, we can play those games together. However, if my partner wants to play Balatro as I’ve played it, he’ll need to buy an extra copy. With Steam Families, you can also play shared games offline.
Valve says that Steam Families are “intended to contain your immediate family” and that they can include “up to 6 immediate family members.” Each member of a Steam Family will have their own save games and earn their own achievements. Adults can leave a Steam Family at any time, but if they do, they’ll have to wait a year before they can start or join a new Family. Children can only be removed by an adult’s Steam Family or with the help of Steam support.
In a video, Valve said that the old Family Sharing feature will be retired “eventually,” so if you’re already using that, you might want to set up Steam Families instead.
You can start using Steam Families by updating Steam. The latest Steam client update comes with a few other updates, as well, including a redesigned screenshots manager.
