It’s official! One of Steam’s best features is finally available to all its users. Following its beta launch earlier this year, Steam Families has now graduated to a full release.
If you aren’t already using it, Steam Families is an upgraded version of the previous Family Sharing setup. The core is still the same: it allows families to share games, manage parental controls for their kids, and approve their kids’ requests to buy Steam games.
The most significant change from the previous system is the ability for family members to play different games from the same library simultaneously.
Previously, if someone was playing a game on your Steam library, you had to be in offline mode, or you would kick the other person playing, but now, that limit is gone.
Your friends/family can all enjoy freeloading while you also enjoy your library, just so long as you aren’t trying to access the same game.
Essentially, this means that if you’re playing your copy of Stardew Valley and Cody, who is part of your hypothetical library, wants to play your copy of Sea of Stars, he can without either of you being booted.
Another cool feature of the new system is that everyone’s games are pooled together. This means if Arielle has a copy of Baulders Gate and Larry has a copy of Baulders Gate, there are two copies of the game in the family, so Cody and Oliver can both play it at the same time, each of them theoretically “lending” a different copy in the library.
Steam Families is intended to contain six of your immediate family members, and each member of a Steam Family will have their own save games and earn their own achievements.
To encourage everyone to play nice and respect the system, Steam has implemented a pretty harsh punishment for Family hoppers. If you leave a Steam Family for any reason, you will need to wait a year before you can join or start a new Family.