Valve has officially rolled out its new Steam Families feature to all users following a beta phase earlier this year. This update allows families to share their game libraries, offering improved parental controls and the ability to approve game purchase requests from children.
A key advancement in this feature is that multiple users can now access different games from the same library simultaneously, resolving a limitation from Valve’s previous Family Sharing system.
With Steam Families, users can share games within a household of up to six members. Each member has access to their own saved games and can earn individual achievements. Importantly, this new system enables offline play for shared games, expanding its flexibility. However, shared games cannot be played by multiple members simultaneously—if one member is already playing a specific game, others must purchase their own copy to join in.
Steam Families is designed to manage access within immediate family units, as Valve emphasized in their announcement. Adults in the family can leave at any time, but if they do, they face a one-year waiting period before rejoining or creating a new Steam Family. Children can only be removed by an adult or with the assistance of Steam support.
As part of this update, Valve announced plans to phase out the older Family Sharing feature in favor of Steam Families. Users still using Family Sharing are encouraged to migrate to the new system.
To activate Steam Families, users need to update their Steam client. This update also introduces other new features, including a revamped screenshot manager.
Featured Image courtesy of Steam
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