Following a successful beta test earlier this year, Valve has finally put out Steam Families for everybody. The idea is a simple one. Parents looking to share their games with their families like they did with their friends in the days of yore (before physical media made like a lemming) can now do so and, most importantly, all at the same time.
Ohana means family, family means nobody is left out of playing Ragnarök
And thank goodness for that. The first iteration of Steam Families, while a handy tool for monitoring your kid’s purchases and game time, also allowed parents to share their libraries with their families – but disallowed any two people to hop on the shared library simultaneously. As Families leaves beta, that’s no longer the case.
Now, parents can recruit up to five members (of a household). Upon joining a Steam Family, you’ll be given the key to a ‘family library’ of games from all joined members, and they’ll be given access to yours. The only downside? Two members attempting to boot up the same game simultaneously. You’ll need another copy for that.
That means only one account needs to buy God of War Ragnarök when it drops on PC next week, once Dad has had a turn first, of course. All members starting up shared games not owned by them won’t have to worry about mixing achievements or save files, as these will be unique to each member accessing the shared library.
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Or, if you’d rather not let little Timmy catch a glimpse of Kratos violently split a draugr in threes or fours, you can always disable their access to the more adult-orientated games in the library, and monitor their activity while you do it. Limiting playtime is another option, as is granting your kid a couple of extra hours when they ask (and you’ve already beaten Ragnarök).
Finally, rather than whipping out the credit card or gifting a game whenever a family member wants a new game, they can now send a purchase request to a parent, which you can approve or decline.
It’s worth noting that not every Steam title will be available as a Steam Family title, and won’t be shareable with the rest of the household. That’s up to the developers themselves – which sounds like a scummy excuse to give the EAs and Activisions of the world a path to fleece its customers even more.