Valve’s new Steam Home feature is now available to everyone after launching in beta earlier this year. Through Steam Family, parents can share games with family members, manage their children’s parental controls, and approve their children’s requests to purchase Steam games.
One of the big improvements to Steam Family over Valve’s previous Family Sharing setup is that multiple people can play games in a shared library at the same time. So if I’m playing Balateroand my friends (my Steam family) want to play arranger, We can play these games at the same time. But if my partner wants to play Balatero Although I was already playing with it, she needed to purchase an additional copy. With Steam Family, you can also play shared games offline.
Valve says Steam families are “designed to accommodate your immediate family” and can include “up to 6 close family members.” Each member of the Steam family will have their own save game and receive their own achievements. Adults can leave a Steam household at any time, but if they do, they must wait a year before starting or joining a new household. Children can only be removed by an adult or by Steam Family with the help of Steam Support.
In the video, Valve says that the old family sharing feature will “eventually” be retired, so if you’ve been using it, you may need to set up a Steam family.
You can start using Steam Family by updating Steam. The latest Steam client update also comes with a few other updates, including a redesigned screenshot manager.
