Valve Launches Steam Families, Collection Of Family-Orientated Features & Tools

Valve announced this week that it has launched a new collection of features and tools for users on its digital games marketplace, Steam. Steam Families is available to everyone worldwide, as the gaming company and publisher detailed everything users need to know about the Steam Families features to protect their family and loved ones when gaming.

Steam Families was in beta testing throughout 2024, allowing selected users to test out the new feature and its tools and provide valuable feedback for Valve before launch. This revamped feature replaces Steam Family Sharing and Steam Family View by giving users a complete set of tools and a central hub to turn on or off settings, manage members and games, and more.

Steam Families allows users to join or create a single-family account to invite up to five members managed from a PC client, mobile device, or preferred web browser. When adding members to join, they have the option to "be added as an adult or child," which, after receiving an invite, they'll be notified to join Steam Family.

Adult members joining Steam Family have access to manage invites, remove members, and toggle account settings like Parental Controls, Child Payment Requests, and other account restrictions. Any child accounts joining this feature must observe and follow all enabled Parental Controls settings, which can be done from the Family Management option to "configure" their games access, playtime limits, and general Steam Client access.

One great benefit of this revamped feature is the Family Sharing tool, which grants access to all supported games owned by every member. This games collection can be viewed from the Games Library tab by clicking the drop-down icon and selecting the "Group by Library" check box to view the shared games.

Valve published on 11th September 2024 a Steam Families FAQ post which clarifies that the games' developers, not Valve themselves, set the games' eligibility for the Family Sharing feature unless they've opted out due to "technical or other reasons." Valve has added a Steam Store tag where users can see which games support the Family Sharing tool and outline which games and related content aren't eligible, which are as follows:

• Games and gaming content that require a subscription service or a third-party account or key
• Free-to-play titles and their available DLCs
• Region-locked games and DLCs
• Unsupported games due to members' current OS (operating system)
• Unsupported games labeled by the developer as "unavailable for sharing"
• All games are labeled as private by the owner
• All games currently excluded from the Family Sharing feature remain excluded with the new Steam Families feature, especially games requiring a subscription service or a third-party account

Members can play games from this shared library at any time; however, if the game is currently in use, they can either play another member's copy that Steam will launch or wait for the game to be available or purchased. Likewise, if they cannot play a specific game, it usually means that the game is in use and will be locked until the members stop playing.

Adult members can toggle within the Parental Controls settings to prevent members from accessing or playing selected games or related content they own from appearing in the shared games collection. For more information, they can refer to the Steam Families FAQ post or the Steam Families forum thread and submit a support ticket with Steam Support if they need help with related issues impacting the Steam Families feature and more.