Steam News - Steam Families is here - Steam News
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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.

  • KickMeElmo
    54·
    2 months ago

    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.

    • penquin@lemm.ee
      9·
      2 months ago

      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.

    • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
      51·
      2 months ago

      This might be a dumb question, but can you share non steam games that are in your library?

      • warm@kbin.earth
        22·
        2 months ago

        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.

        • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
          9·
          2 months ago

          That’s what I figured. Good call on the games not being on the servers, I didn’t think about that. Thanks

          • blindsight@beehaw.org
            4·
            2 months ago

            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.

          • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
            4·
            2 months ago

            For GoG games, you could just send a family member a copy of the game you downloaded yourself i suppose

              • FubarberryOPMEnglish
                3·
                2 months ago

                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.

              • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
                1·
                2 months ago

                You own the games on steam too. It’s the same thing, steam just has a front end with graphics.

                  • FubarberryOPMEnglish
                    1·
                    2 months ago

                    No, many steam games use steam to verify if you own the game. It’s up to developers if they require their game to have steam drm or not.

                    If the game doesn’t have Steam DRM, you can just copy the game folder and run it anywhere. But many games will require steam (with an account that owns the game) to be running before they’ll open.

                  • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
                    11·
                    2 months ago

                    Yup. They’re just files. You’ll want to move the entire game folder for steam, the install file doesn’t come with the games.

      • KickMeElmo
        142·
        2 months ago

        There’s no mechanism by which that could work.