Thursday, September 12th 2024

Valve Announces Steam Families

Valve is excited to announce Steam Families is now available for all users. Steam Families is a collection of new and existing family-related features. It replaces 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 get started, you can create a Steam Family and then invite up to 5 family members. You can manage your family from your Steam Client, mobile device or web browser. By joining a Steam Family, each member gains access to the following Steam features:

Family Sharing: When you join a Steam Family, you automatically gain access to the shareable games that your family members own, and they will also be able to access the shareable titles in your library. The next time you log in to Steam, this new 'family library' will appear in the left column as a subsection of your games list. You maintain ownership of your current titles and when you purchase a new game it will still show up in your collection. Best of all, when you are playing a game from your family library, you will create your own saved games, earn your own Steam achievements, have access to workshop files and more. Family Sharing enables you to play games from other family members' libraries, even if they are online playing another game. If your family library has multiple copies of a game, multiple members of the family can play that game at the same time. Family Sharing is a feature that developers may opt their games out of for technical or other reasons at any time. Visit the Steam Store to see a list of games that currently support Family Sharing.
Parental Controls: Steam Families includes new parental controls that allow parents to set limits on what and when children play games on Steam. You can control which games your children have access to and monitor their activity. This information is available from wherever you access Steam, including your mobile device when you are away from home.


Members of a Steam Family can have one of two roles: adult or child. Any adult family member can manage invites and apply account restrictions. Children are subject to parental controls and do not have permissions to manage the family.

Parental control features let adults:
  • 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
Child Purchase Requests: We understand a common (and sometimes time-consuming) task for parents is purchasing games for their children. This usually requires that parents complete a gift purchase or let their kids borrow a credit card.

To streamline this process, Steam Families introduces a new payment option where a child account can request an in-family adult to pay for their shopping cart. The adult can approve and pay for the purchase from their mobile device or email. Once approved, all games from the shopping cart will be added to the child's account.

For FAQ and more details, visit this page.
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18 Comments on Valve Announces Steam Families

#1
Cheeseball
Not a Potato
Family Sharing enables you to play games from other family members' libraries, even if they are online playing another game.
Confirmed that this works. The two restrictions that I've observed was that (a) the "borrowing" family member cannot play the same game at the same time as the owner who bought it (I tested Elden Ring and Space Marine 2, my family member does not own those two games) and (b) the family member must be in the same "area" as you. The extent of the area I've tested seems to be physically within the same city, regardless of ISPs (I'm on Verizon, but the person I made a family member is on Comcast), so Steam is probably checking if you're in proximity with the family member, regardless of service perhaps. It does not matter what region your Steam account is set to (my Steam account is completely a different region than my family member's).
Posted on Reply
#2
AusWolf
I don't have children, but this sounds like an incredibly useful feature for those who do.
Posted on Reply
#3
R0H1T
CheeseballThe extent of the area I've tested seems to be physically within the same city
What, so they can't be on another continent :D
Posted on Reply
#4
Legacy-ZA
This is a very very welcome addition, good job Valve. Good job.

*Edit*
And by the off-chance of any you there read this.

THANK YOU!
Posted on Reply
#5
Cheeseball
Not a Potato
R0H1TWhat, so they can't be on another continent :D
This might actually work. I can't test it now, but I may be able to in a few days once another "family member" of mine in another continent gets back to me.

Just have to be careful with adding/removing family members as there is a 1 year cooldown when trying to switch to another "family". However, you bypass the cooldown if you go back to the family you just left.
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#6
Bloste
AusWolfI don't have children, but this sounds like an incredibly useful feature for those who do.
As a father of two avid gamers, I assure you it is. I've testing it for some time in the beta client and it's very flexible: it marks how many copies you have in the family pool for each game, and even it lets you choose from which library you want to borrow (nice for borrowing a license with DLC, for example).
Posted on Reply
#7
Vayra86
Right on time, daughter is six and starting to venture into the digital world... slowly... Anything that helps keeping her away from Android/IOS is a win to me.
AusWolfI don't have children, but this sounds like an incredibly useful feature for those who do.
Try it then, so you can use the feature! :rolleyes:
Posted on Reply
#8
Heiro78
Vayra86Right on time, daughter is six and starting to venture into the digital world... slowly... Anything that helps keeping her away from Android/IOS is a win to me.


Try it then, so you can use the feature! :rolleyes:
Why they eye rolling? You want em to get to making kids lol
Posted on Reply
#9
INSTG8R
Vanguard Beta Tester
R0H1TWhat, so they can't be on another continent :D
No…Unless they’ve changed it. I“m in Norway and share my library to the US and UK for years
Posted on Reply
#10
warriorunited
In case someone knows the answer for this:

Me and my GF we own Diablo 4 on both accounts... With this new sharing, i can buy the new expansion Vessel of Hatred and share with her, or she has to buy it too to have access to it?

Thanks!
Posted on Reply
#11
Bloste
warriorunitedIn case someone knows the answer for this:

Me and my GF we own Diablo 4 on both accounts... With this new sharing, i can buy the new expansion Vessel of Hatred and share with her, or she has to buy it too to have access to it?

Thanks!
You can select the library from you want to borrow the game, even if you have it in your own library. So if you buy the DLC, I'm pretty sure she can borrow your copy of the game with the DLC. But that means, you can't play with your copy while she's borrowing it.
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#12
randomUser
your family members own
Did you not know that you own nothing?
The correct term would be "your family members who have permission to access the games"
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#13
Vayra86
Heiro78Why they eye rolling? You want em to get to making kids lol
Yeah I kinda read that smiley as a tongue in cheek, the eyes aint moving :D Agreed
Posted on Reply
#14
warriorunited
BlosteYou can select the library from you want to borrow the game, even if you have it in your own library. So if you buy the DLC, I'm pretty sure she can borrow your copy of the game with the DLC. But that means, you can't play with your copy while she's borrowing it.
Thanks for your answer.

It's not going to work then, because we play Diablo 4 together at the same time (same house, two computers :))
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#15
Moofachuka
Great news... Can't wait to try this.

First I need to get a family...
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#16
AusWolf
Vayra86Try it then, so you can use the feature! :rolleyes:
Try what? Children? No, thank you. :ohwell:

As for the feature, I might have a go once I manage to convince the missus to finally try a game (it's not easy). :D
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#17
mamisano
I've been testing this feature with my 2 sons, and it has worked great. We were all able to play Satisfactory together at the same time. I wish Microsoft would implement a similar feature for Game Pass. Right now, I have to log into their Microsoft Store accounts with my credentials in order for them to install games from my Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription.
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#18
freeagent
This is amazing!

I will have to try when I get home!
Posted on Reply
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