Steam’s improved Family Sharing feature is now available to everyone

Valve’s new Steam Families feature Now available to all Following a beta launch earlier this year, Steam Families is rolling out to parents to share games with their families, manage parental controls for their kids, and approve their kids’ requests to purchase Steam games.

The big improvement in Steam Families compared to Valve’s previous Family Sharing setup is that multiple people can play games from a shared library at the same time. So if I’m playing BalatroAnd my partner, who is part of my Steam family, wants to play arranger, We can both play these games at the same time. However, if my partner wants to play Balatro While I’m already playing it, that would require buying an additional copy. With Steam Families, you can also play shared games offline.

Valve says Steam Families are “designed to include your immediate family” and can include “up to 6 close family members.” Each member of a Steam Family will have their own saved games and earn their own achievements. Adults can leave a Steam Family at any time, but if they do, they must wait one year before starting or joining a new family. Children can only be removed from a Steam Family with the help of an adult or Steam Support.

In a videoValve says the old Family Sharing feature will be removed “eventually,” so if you’re using that, you may want to set up Steam Families instead.

You can start using Steam Family by updating Steam. The latest Steam client update allows you to start using Steam Family. Some other updatesWhich also includes a redesigned screenshot manager.