Steam Families is officially accessible for all users, streamlining the process of sharing your gaming library while also allowing you to supervise your children’s gaming activities.
While features designed for families have been part of Steam for some time—including Family Sharing and parental controls like Family View—Steam Families, introduced in beta in May, consolidates these options into a single hub. This new functionality went live on Wednesday, making the weekend perfect for starting to explore game sharing.
Valve has also revamped several existing features, particularly enhancing Family Sharing. In the past, joining a family allowed you to access another member’s game library, but not all titles supported sharing, and only one family member could play a borrowed game at a time. For instance, while I enjoyed playing my husband’s copy of Baldur’s Gate 3, he would receive a warning if he wanted to access his account while I was using it, resulting in a forced log-off after five minutes.
Fortunately, that’s no longer the scenario. According to Valve, family members can now access games from another’s library, even if that person is currently playing a different game. However, only one person can play the same title at once. This means that if multiple family members own the same game, they can all join in simultaneously. After this enhancement, I was able to dive into Tactical Breach Wizards while my husband played Tabletop Simulator.
Steam Families is designed for use in households with up to six family members, but it could also be shared with trusted friends. Valve has indicated that the guidelines and limits may evolve over time.
In addition to these improvements, new parental controls have been implemented, allowing you to set purchase limits for your children on Steam and manage their gaming experiences. You can provide access to specific games deemed suitable or restrict them from the store and chat features. Additionally, playtime limits can be established, and you will have access to reports detailing your child’s gaming behavior.
Valve has introduced a feature for purchase requests from children, enabling you to approve any games they wish to buy.
There are several other highly anticipated features currently being tested in beta on Steam, such as native game recording and an innovative system for determining review helpfulness that also highlights when a user primarily played a game on Steam Deck.