Steam is rolling out Families, a new system that allows you to share a library of games with your family for free, as well as launch multiple titles at the same time. A very practical tool that should further improve the platform’s popularity.
Steam is the most popular and comprehensive digital video game distribution platform on the market, whether for casual players or passionate gamers. It is based on a friendly community where sharing reigns. For several years, the launcher has offered a family sharing function. Thus, it is possible to play on different machines with the same Steam library, but not at the same time. In addition, by configuring your library with a loved one’s account, Valve allows the latter access to the titles in this library, provided that its owner is not in the game himself.
In any case, if someone else launches one of the shared games, you are automatically disconnected in the middle of the game. Needless to say, this is not very practical, especially for the most active players. Fortunately, Steam has decided to review this operation! The platform actually hosts Steam Families (“Steam families” in French). This is a set of functions resulting from the merger between family sharing and the parental protection of “family mode”. Until now available in beta, it is now available in stable version. It replaces family sharing and family mode.
Steam Families: a much more practical sharing function
A Steam family can host up to five members. Family Sharing lets you play games from other family members’ libraries, even if the owner of the game is playing something else online, without the need for an internet connection. This new “family library” will appear in the left column as a subsection within the games list.
The Steam Families FAQ gives a concrete example of this new operation: “Let’s say you are a family of 4 and you own a copy of Portal 2 and a copy of Half-Life. At any given time, one member can play Portal 2 and one can play Half-Life. If two of you want to play Portal 2 at the same time, another family member will have to purchase a copy of the game. After this purchase, there will be two copies of Portal 2 in the family and two members will be able to play at the same time.”.
Even better, each member of the family group gets their own game saves, earns their own Steam Achievements, and has individual access to Steam Workshop files. Be careful though: games can only be shared if their developer has not opted out of the Steam Families program.
Steam Families introduces a new set of parental control tools. Members designated as “adults” can monitor and manage game access for accounts registered as “kids.” Adults can restrict kids’ access to games, the store, community features, and chat, as well. They can also view and set limits on playtime reports, approve kids’ requests for additional playtime or feature access, and recover kids’ accounts if they lose their passwords.
The process of purchasing games for kids is also simplified. Instead of requiring an adult to buy them a gift card to spend, kids will now be able to put the desired game in their cart and then ask the adults in the family group to pay. Parents will then be able to approve and pay for the purchase from their own account.
Steam Families: how to take advantage of the new sharing system?
The new Steam Families feature is currently available to all users on the platform. To create a family, head to the store page, click on your profile, and then click Account details. Go to Family management. And there you have it, you can now invite other people to join your family group!
Please note that children are not allowed to leave their Steam Family, only adults in the family and Steam Support can remove them. Additionally, adults can leave a family at any time, but will have to wait one year from the time they joined the previous family to create or join a new family.