Previously, if players wanted to share games on Steam, they would need to either log in to the same account or use the Family Share feature. Now, this will no longer be the case, as Steam has announced the launch of Steam Families, an improved version of the Family Share feature that will let players borrow and share games with their family and friends.
Hello! We are excited to announce the launch of Steam Families, now accessible in the Steam Beta Client. This feature introduces significant updates and improvements to family sharing, parental controls, and child purchase requests.
See all the details at the announcement blog… pic.twitter.com/qL8iUtJKOr
— Steam (@Steam) March 18, 2024
For starters, let's talk about what Steam Families entails. According to their introductory post about the feature, Steam Families is “a collection of new and existing family-related features”, and will replace “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.”
To use this feature, players will have to create a Steam Family and invite up to 5 family members. The feature is designed and intended for immediate family, although players will likely find a way to circumvent this. Once you finish setting up your family, players will be able to use previously available features, such as Family Sharing, Parental Controls, and Child Purchase Requests.
Family Sharing allows players in the family to share their games with everyone else. What's interesting is that this will now allow players to play the shared games, even if the owner of the game is online. The only difference is that players cannot play the same game at the same time if there is only one copy available.
Parental Controls also make their way to Steam Families, allowing parents to limit what games their kids play, or when they play. Members of a Family are assigned as either an adult or a child, with the adults able to control the parental controls. Additionally, adults will have access to these features:
- 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
Lastly, Adults will have access to the Child Purchase Requests. When a child wants a game, they can request it from the Adult, who can then approve the purchase to add it to the Child's library.
Now you may be wondering: how does one opt into this feature? For starters, players will have to join the Client Beta Participation. Players can follow these steps to do so:
- While Steam is running, click on Steam upper left, then choose the “Settings” menu.
- Select Interface, then under “Client Beta Participation” select the dropdown menu
- Select Steam Family Beta from the drop down list, and click OK. You'll be prompted to restart Steam at this point.
Once they have entered the Client Beta Participation, they can then proceed to create a Steam Family.
Of course, there are various caveats to this feature. For starters, as mentioned above, only one player can play a game for each copy the shared library has. Additionally, all games are automatically shared with other members, so players will have to limit which Steam games children can borrow. Also important to remember is that if a family member gets banned while playing a borrowed game, the owner of the game will also get banned. Lastly, as mentioned above, this feature was intended for immediate family members. As such, Steam will “monitor the usage of this feature”, and they “may adjust the requirements for participating in a Steam Family or the number of members over time to keep usage in line with this intent.”
That's all the information we have about the Steam Families feature. Want more of the latest gaming news, updates, and video game releases? Subscribe now to the ClutchPoints Gaming Newsletter to receive your weekly dose of video game information.
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