Hello! We are excited to announce Steam Families is now available for all users. Steam Families is a collection of new and existing family-related features. It replaces both Steam Family Sharing and Steam Family View, giving you a single location to manage which games your family can access and when they can play. Create a Steam Family To get started, you can create a Steam Family and then invite up to 5 family members.
This was previously available as a opt in beta, but is now available for everyone.
How is it different from the beta one that we already had? I looked today and I’m still in the beta one and there is no other option to the actual one!
This is the same as the beta version, but is distinctly different from what we used to have. Previously playing a shared game locked down the entire library, now it just locks the one copy of the game. Previously you had to sign in on the same device to make it happen, now you can invite into the family remotely. Previously you could switch people in and out easily, now there’s a six person limit on the family and a one year cooldown on both the slot and the member who chooses to leave a family.
Overall it’s better as long as you didn’t abuse the system before.
Previously playing a shared game locked down the entire library, now it just locks the one copy of the game.
This is by far the best thing ever for me. My 10 year old son is always hogging the damn thing and I never get to play. 😂
Thank you valve for locking only the game. I’m so freaking happy, you have no idea.
I still don’t understand the cooldown part, but meh, I got what I’ve always dreamed of, and that is what I care about.
No, not through Steam Families. Steam servers don’t host non-Steam games that you put in your library, it just launches the executable for you when you click play.
The catch is that many game publishers won’t release their games on GOG, or wait for several years after release before they start to sell it there.
Technically, Steam DRM is optional and any publishers who want to can sell their games through steam without any form of DRM. The game files are transferable, and you don’t need steam running or logged in to run the game. But most publishers don’t want DRM removed, and so it’s pretty rare.
How is it different from the beta one that we already had? I looked today and I’m still in the beta one and there is no other option to the actual one!
This is the same as the beta version, but is distinctly different from what we used to have. Previously playing a shared game locked down the entire library, now it just locks the one copy of the game. Previously you had to sign in on the same device to make it happen, now you can invite into the family remotely. Previously you could switch people in and out easily, now there’s a six person limit on the family and a one year cooldown on both the slot and the member who chooses to leave a family.
Overall it’s better as long as you didn’t abuse the system before.
This is by far the best thing ever for me. My 10 year old son is always hogging the damn thing and I never get to play. 😂 Thank you valve for locking only the game. I’m so freaking happy, you have no idea. I still don’t understand the cooldown part, but meh, I got what I’ve always dreamed of, and that is what I care about.
This might be a dumb question, but can you share non steam games that are in your library?
No, not through Steam Families. Steam servers don’t host non-Steam games that you put in your library, it just launches the executable for you when you click play.
That’s what I figured. Good call on the games not being on the servers, I didn’t think about that. Thanks
I think you can Steam Remote Play Together with non-Steam games, but that’s the only way to “share” them that I know of.
For GoG games, you could just send a family member a copy of the game you downloaded yourself i suppose
That’s why I love GOG. You actually own your game that you PAID for.
The catch is that many game publishers won’t release their games on GOG, or wait for several years after release before they start to sell it there.
Technically, Steam DRM is optional and any publishers who want to can sell their games through steam without any form of DRM. The game files are transferable, and you don’t need steam running or logged in to run the game. But most publishers don’t want DRM removed, and so it’s pretty rare.
Here’s a list of Steam games that have DRM disabled. There’s also a number of games that will run DRM free if you put a txt file with the game’s steam ID number in it.
You own the games on steam too. It’s the same thing, steam just has a front end with graphics.
Like I can take the .exe and install it on any other computer own them?
There’s no mechanism by which that could work.
Yes I know. The question was answered hours before you replied.
Depending on what you mean by non-steam games. Maybe.
This implementation of steam families has been available in beta for several months. This is just the non-beta roll-out of the feature to everyone.