Steam launches ‘Families’, allowing users to share games

Steam has launched Steam Families, its new solution for sharing games between groups of players.

A Steam Family can consist of 5 members and will allow members to purchase a title once, giving every member of the Steam Family access to that game.

Developers can choose whether or not to support this feature. If a game currently supports the Steam Family Sharing system that was previously in place, it will automatically support Steam Families.

Players don’t need to be online to play a shared game, so long as the game itself supports the feature. All games will be automatically shared between all members of the family, however using parental controls, it’s possible to block games from younger users within the Steam Family account.

If two members of the family want to play the same game and the same time, they will have to purchase two copies of the game. An adult member of the Steam Family can also remove any member of the Steam Family at any time.

Each Steam Family slot has a cooldown of one year before a new member can occupy that slot.

“Let’s say that you are in a family with 4 members and that you own a copy of Portal 2 and a copy of Half-Life,” Valve explained.

“At any time, any one member can play Portal 2 and another can play Half-Life. If two of you would like to play Portal 2 at the same time, someone else in the family will need to purchase a copy of the game. After that purchase, there are two owned copies of Portal 2 across the family and any two members can play at the same time.

“In this example, if your family chose to not buy a second copy, you can play any other game in your library while waiting for your family member to finish playing your copy of Portal 2.”