Steam Families, a new feature on the Steam gaming platform, has launched following a beta test earlier this year. The feature allows up to five family members to join a single family group that provides access to a shared library of games, manages parental controls for kids, and approves requests to buy Steam games.
Steam Families also lets multiple users within the group play different games from the shared library simultaneously. If a family owns multiple copies of the same game, each person can play their own copy at the same time. However, it’s important to note that some game developers may choose not to support this feature. Steam does maintain a list of games that support family sharing, which users can refer to via the Steam store.
Steam Families has also integrated the previous Steam Family View, allowing adults in the family to monitor and control their children’s activities on the platform. Parents can limit their children’s access to the Steam store, communities, and chat, as well as set playtime restrictions, approve extensions to these limits, and recover a child’s account if needed, providing absolute parental controls.
Despite this, Steam Families does come with some restrictions. While adults can leave a family group at any time, they must wait a full year before rejoining or creating a new family group. Children can only be removed by a Steam Family adult member or with the help of Steam support.
Users can start using this feature by updating the latest version of Steam, and Valve has already mentioned that the old Family Sharing feature will soon be retired. Additionally, all members of a family group need to have Steam accounts registered in the same country, which may limit its use for families scattered internationally.
