Steam Makes Family Sharing Easier with New "Steam Families" Feature

Valve announced a major overhaul to their family sharing system on Steam. The new system, called "Steam Families", offers a more streamlined way for families to share games and includes built-in parental controls.

Steam Families allows players to create a group of up to six members who can then share all their games with each other. This is a significant improvement over the previous Family Sharing system, which only allowed one person at a time to play a shared game. With Steam Families, anyone in the group can play any game that another member owns, as long as the game is playable in the sharing program (certain games may be excluded by developers, or for technical reasons).

Steam Families also introduces robust parental controls. Adult members of a Family can set spending limits for child accounts, as well as restrict access to features like the Steam Community. This allows parents to ensure their children are only playing age-appropriate games and spending responsibly.

The Steam Families feature is currently available in the Steam Beta Client. If you'd like to try it out before it's widely available, you can access it through the Settings menu in Steam. Navigate to Interface, then Client Beta Participation, and select "Steam Family Beta".

There are a few limitations to keep in mind with Steam Families. The number of games playable at once is limited to the number of copies actually owned by the Family. For example, if a family of four owns two copies of a game, only two people can play it simultaneously. Additionally, some games may not be compatible with sharing due to developer restrictions or technical limitations.