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Family Sharing enables you to play games from other family members' libraries, even if they are online playing another game. If your family library has multiple copies of a game, multiple members of the family can play that game at the same time.
Well this is exceptionally exciting. This potentially solves 100% of my complaints with Family Sharing as it exists currently.
For REAL!! Not playing same game with one copy makes sense. But the one instance per library was harsh. This is tremendous, and honestly, I'll probably buy even more games knowing my kids can play them and I can stick to my same old same old if I don't like it.
No kidding. This solves a major issue with the Steam Deck as well, because now someone else can be playing on the Deck while you use your main PC for another game.
Yeah. Right now Family Sharing locks down an entire library instead of individual games so this wasn't possible.
Its shit like this why I want to smack the "B-BUT STEAMS MONOPOLY" types who claim Steam does nothing with its 30%. Steam is one of the only companies out their in our late stage capitalist society that actually does things for its customer base without being forced to. We have digital refunds, completely remappable controllers, a linux operating system and portable computer that functions as a console when you dont want to use it as a computer, the only DRM in the world that doesnt actively suck, built in mod database/support, VR, official early access marketplace support (I know it has its issues), user game reviews with multiple sorting options, and thats everything I can currently think of. Steam is not only the only company I dont actively hate (Ok, I kind of like Costco too), vut I actually quite like Steam as a company.
Digital refunds isn't them being good, it's them getting sued by Australia.
They could have made it an AU only feature, though, and didn't, to their credit.
Because I'm pretty sure EU was next in line to slap them in the face for not offering refunds.
without being forced to. We have digital refunds
Small nitpick, but it’s funny that you specifically listed their refunds first. Because they were forced into that. Some may remember how comically awful Steam’s customer support used to be. It was genuinely horrible, with resolution turnaround times measured in days and weeks instead of minutes or hours. There was no instant messaging or automated system; You had to email a sketchy email address, then wait days or weeks for them to finally respond. And chances were good that the response would basically boil down to “lul git fuckd loser, sux 2 b u”
Europe started pushing for them to be more customer friendly, because their refunds in particular were breaching some local European laws. In order to keep operating in Europe, they revamped their refund process entirely and recommitted to better customer service going forwards. But they only started the entire refund revamp in 2015 because they were going to be pushed out of European markets if they failed to comply.
Don't forget private games, it's a win-win because customers can buy games they don't want to show to their friends and Valve get more money because they get more people buying those ~~embarrassing~~ ~~awesome~~ games.
Don’t forget Steam Link! It’s one of my favourite features. You’re not even really tethered to any particular device to play your games since so many devices support the app. I play games that are single-player “console” style games in my lounge room for comfort and Steam Link means I can use my very good PC instead of buying into yet another console generation.
This stuff is great.
But ignoring all the real issues with Steam is stupid. Its people like you that require others to point out all the issues with Valve and how it won't last forever.
A monopoly is a monopoly is a monopoly.
The vast majority of games you pay for on Steam can be taken from you in a couple of clicks from a Valve employee. The second there's a chance in management everything can go out the window very quickly because their position is ripe for abuse.
My adult children will be ecstatic for my new ability to set their playtime limits and see reports.
but mooooom im 35
This is pretty fantastic. I have two kids that I share with, and when one plays any game from my library currently, my entire library gets locked out from the other kid. Changing this to a game by game basis makes so much more sense.
My account has been locked up because my daughter has three separate BG3 games going with friends. Last week my son said we need to put a time limit on her because nobody else can play on Steam.
If a family member gets banned for cheating while playing your copy of a game, you (the game owner) will also be banned in that game.
This is going to be hilarious. Can't wait to see the whining online.
Isn't that exactly the same as how it worked before?
There may have been a brief moment where that didn't happen, and then people discovered they could make cheat accounts, share their own games with them and get only the cheat accounts banned, and then make new ones and repeat.
It is. My vac ban is currently 4990 days old. Thanks son!
It's the only way I can see it working. Otherwise, you could just make infinite cheat accounts.
Optimist me: Steam looking into curating the next generation of customers.
Pessimist me: child protection laws made it too much of a headache for Steam to monetize the kids.
BuT wHy iS eVeRyOnE RiDiNg sTeAm'S DiCK? ThEy aRe A mOnOpOlY!!11!!!
- Some fuckwits
To be fair, a lot of monopolies are great in the beginning. It's the inevitable power-tripping downslide that sucks.
I still love Steam and Valve though.
The only reason this hasnt happened with valve is because it's a private company. Publically traded companies are the cancer of ou society tbh
Not disagreeing, but I think the point is that no single person or company should be in a position of that much power. All it takes is for one thing to go wrong, one law to change, or one financial scare to happen, and BOOM. Suddenly this great monopoly is doing things people hate and there's no alternative.
Who can be in a Steam Family?
While we know that families come in many shapes and sizes, Steam Families is intended for a household of up to 6 close family members.
To that end, as we monitor the usage of this feature, we may adjust the requirements for participating in a Steam Family or the number of members over time to keep usage in line with this intent.
This sounds like they are going to limit usage to geo-locational. Or that's just supposition by me but I don't see any other things this would target.
It would be nice if they could someday find a better way to enforce this. What if your kid has shared custody with their other parent, and they aren't in the same household all the time? What if they're studying abroad and aren't even in the same country?
I don't have the solution, but I do hope someone eventually finds a better way to do it.
Probably less geo-location and more just shared IP block/address
I experimented around with it in the beta out of curiosity.
Failed to accept the family invite. Your account must be in the same country as all current family members.
I'm assuming this is based on account region (i.e. purchase region) and not IP.
This is exactly what I've been waiting for. My son is 13 and we share a Steam library. It's not usually an issue but sometimes he does want to play something that requires online connection at the same time as me. Now that problem should be permanently in the past.
Even if he moves out in who knows how many years he can still take all his games with him. This is why I never feel guilty about spending money on Steam/Valve; I know that as long as GabeN lives, I won't get stabbed in the back.
While it’s perhaps morbid, could there ever be a feature of Steam Inheritance? Eg, a person owns many thousands of dollars in games, passes away, and has a family that might like access to them.
Has some legal difficulties where you’d need to verify identity and have contact with lawyers to execute it, so it’s not exactly a software problem.
No. Because it's a contract between you and Steam. These digital contracts haven't been around for long enough for society to figure out inheritance standards yet, so the companies have all the power to just force your family to repurchase.
Nothing is stopping you from just handing your login credentials to your family. If they can't figure it out then they were not worthy of your library.
Or, you set your steam account up as a company. Still a "person" for legal purposes, but can be handed down.
Totally just joking, but maybe..
We kind of dealt with that for my Dad, but it was never really an issue. My brother just assumed control of the account and that was that. We already had all the access info, so it wasn't like we had to ask them for anything. We just got it setup on this new Family thing yesterday though, so I can actually access most of his games again (for some reason on the old Family Sharing, his games got blocked out).
Sadly it doesn't seem to add the possibility of whitelisting/blacklisting games. I do not want to share porn & VAC games, not even with adults, since the bans are shared to the account actually owning the game.
You can mark games as Private in your library now. It hides your ownership, play stats, etc. It doesn't specifically say it disabled Family Sharing but it'd be silly to keep that. There is also a Hidden Games section which stops it from showing up on your list.
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/1150-C06F-4D62-4966
Edit: I just tested it with current Family Sharing (not this beta version). Both Hidden and Private prevent games from showing on another shared account.
You can mark a game as private and it won't show to the other family members. I verified this just now after signing up for the beta and setting up an account for my spouse. The games I marked private don't show up on their families library.
This is so amazing I'm wondering how on earth they got publishers on board with this. I guess technically they don't need their permission, but I see some hilariously oversized coffee mugs being thrown across board rooms in anger after reading this announcement.
This is good
and
I wish it was easier to manage multiple steam account on a single computer because some of us have more family than devices