Steam Families: Revamped game-sharing feature is now available for everyone

Major improvements to the existing system

Valve

Valve has announced that Steam Families, its revamped game-sharing feature, is now available for all users of the platform, coming with major improvements to the previous family functionality.

Everyone can start a Steam Family now, inviting up to five family members. Everyone inside this group will gain access to the shareable games – this is something publishers decide on – of all other family members as part of the new family library, which is accessible from your own library.

When playing a game from the family stash, you’ll still create your own save games, get your own achievements, and can curate your own mod lists from the Steam Workshop. However, probably the most important change made to the previous system is that family members can now play games simultaneously.

Before, only one family member could access the shared library at any time, even if they wanted to play different games. Now, your sibling can dive into Alien: Isolation while you conquer worlds in Age of Wonders without anyone kicking someone else out of their gaming session.

If you both want to play Alien: Isolation at the same time, you need to have two copies of it inside your library, of course.

Steam Families is offering parental controls for families with kids, allowing them to restrict which games they can play, how long they can play, and whether or not they should be able to access the Steam Store or make in-game purchases. Users can also allow their children to request the purchase of games.

Sharing games with your loved ones comes with some risks, though: If someone cheats using your copy of a game and gets banned, that ban will be extended to you as well. Adult members of a Steam Family can kick out other members at any point.

If you want to change your Steam Family – or refill a previously occupied slot – you need to be patient: A one year cooldown is associated with switching, refilling, and creating families.

You can check the official blog page for more information.