Bellevue, Wash.-based Valve Software announced a new feature for its digital gaming storefront Steam, which allows small groups of Steam users to share access to the computer games in their libraries.
The new feature, Steam Families, debuted on Steam’s beta client on Monday. It’s intended to replace current features such as Steam Family Sharing and Steam Family View, in favor of a single menu that covers both game sharing and parental controls.
When users create a Steam Family, they can designate up to five other users as members, and manage their permissions from a web browser, the standalone Steam client, or the Steam mobile app. A member of a Steam Family has access to the games in all other family members’ libraries that are compatible with the program, which encompasses many but not all of the games on Steam.
A user who’s playing a game via a member of their Steam Family maintains local save files and achievement progress, and can play even if the game’s original owner is online at the time. However, in order for two users to play the same game simultaneously, you’d still need multiple copies of the game across various libraries.
For example, if I was playing Stardew Valley on Steam, a member of my Steam Family could log on and decide to install and play Pacific Drive from my library, even though I’m online and using my account. If that same user wanted to join me in Stardew Valley, they’d have to buy their own copy of the game, or at least borrow it from a third member of our Steam Family.
Steam recently passed a milestone by having over 100,000 individual games available on the platform, although a significant number of them at any time might be hidden due to a user’s content filters.
At time of writing, well over half of those games can be shared with other users via Steam Families, including recent hits such as Baldur’s Gate 3, Palworld, Enshrounded, and Helldivers 2. A game developer may choose to opt a title out from the Steam Families program, due to technical incompatibilities or other reasons.
Accounts in a Steam Family can be designated as an Adult or Child, where Adults can manage invitations and apply content restrictions to anyone with a Child role. This also allows an adult to set playtime limits, restrict access to the storefront, and recover a child’s password. Children can send in-app requests to adults in order to purchase new games, which saves a parent from having to dig out their credit card.
Currently, Steam Families can have up to six members. If someone leaves or gets kicked out, the slot must remain vacant for at least a year before another user can be invited aboard. The idea is that a Steam Family is meant as a labor-saving device for a household of gaming enthusiasts, rather than a way for several unrelated users to share their libraries with one another.
Even so, it’s reflective of Valve’s relatively hands-off process when it comes to account sharing on Steam. While a number of features do require additional security, such as access to the Steam Marketplace for auctioning in-game items, there’s not much in the client that would keep a group of people from having a communal Steam account.
Microsoft’s Xbox program maintains a similar, relatively hands-off approach to password sharing. This stands in stark contrast to other digital subscription services such as Netflix, which implemented new policies earlier this year aimed at cracking down on the practice.
