Valve announced today that Steam Families, the replacement for Steam Family Sharing, is now out of Beta and available to all users.
Unlike the previous version of this widely used feature, family members can now play a different game while someone else in their family is playing something else, instead of completely locking out the guest accounts any time the owner of a library started a single game. Also, if a family owns more than one copy of a game, as many people as copies owned can play at the same time.
Aside from parental controls (which also got revamped with this update) the new version of Family Sharing also introduces Child Purchase Requests, where accounts that are set as children can request adult members of their family to buy them a game.
FAQ
Who can be in a Steam Family?
While we know that families come in many shapes and sizes, Steam Families is intended for a household of up to 6 close family members.
To that end, as we monitor the usage of this feature, we 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.
Can I leave a Steam Family?
Steam Families are intended to contain your immediate family. As major life events can change who lives in your household, it is understandable that some day you may need to join a new Steam Family. Adults can leave a family at any time, however, they will need to wait 1 year from when they joined the previous family to create or join a new family.
Children in a Steam Family cannot leave the family themselves and must be removed by an adult in the family or by Steam Support.
As it is rare that a family member leaves the family, each Steam Family slot has a cooldown of one year before a new member can occupy that slot.
Can I be kicked out of a Steam Family?
Yes, adult family members can kick any family member out of the Steam Family.
Can we go through a real world example of how a Steam Family might share games?
Of course! Let’s say that you are in a family with 4 members and that you own a copy of Portal 2 and a copy of Half-Life. At any time, any one member can play Portal 2 and another can play Half-Life. If two of you would like to play Portal 2 at the same time, someone else in the family will need to purchase a copy of the game. After that purchase, there are two owned copies of Portal 2 across the family and any two members can play at the same time.
In this example, if your family chose to not buy a second copy, you can play any other game in your library while waiting for your family member to finish playing your copy of Portal 2.
Which games are currently eligible for Family Sharing?
A game’s developer controls whether a game is eligible for sharing with Steam Families. All developer settings for the previous Steam Family Sharing feature are being brought forward to Steam Families. So, if a game is currently eligible for Family Sharing, it will remain so in the new system unless the developer chooses to opt-out later.
In addition, not all games can be shared due to technical limitations. For example, titles that require an additional third-party key, account, or subscription in order to play cannot be shared between accounts.
We want as many games as possible to be accessible via Family Sharing, but we realize some games might have special cases where this feature isn’t feasible or doesn’t give users a good experience. Developers who have these concerns can reach out to us via the partner support page to get help with options and solutions.
Do I need to share all of my games with my family?
By joining a family, all games are automatically shared with the other members in your family. Adult accounts can use parental controls to limit which games each child in the Family can access.
What happens if my brother gets banned for cheating while playing my game?
If a family member gets banned for cheating while playing your copy of a game, you (the game owner) will also be banned in that game. Other family members are not impacted.
Do I need to be online to play a shared game?
You can play games from the Family library offline as long as that game supports Family Sharing.
I’m currently using the existing Steam Family Sharing feature. What happens now with Steam Families?
You should set up a Steam Family! Once done, Steam will automatically recommend inviting any accounts that you were previously sharing with.
I’m currently using the Family View feature with my family. What happens now with Steam Families?
If you create a Steam Family and add a child account, any existing Family View settings associated with that account will be transferred to Steam Families under Parental Controls. The ability to unlock controls by entering a PIN will be removed, but the settings are otherwise untouched. Once they’ve joined the family, you can modify their parental controls at any time.