Valve has recently introduced a new feature on their Steam Beta Client called Steam Families. This feature includes revamped family sharing options that aim to simplify the process of managing your family’s gaming activities. With Steam Families, you can now have more control over what and when your family members can play.
Under the new rules of Steam Families, you can create a Steam Family with yourself and up to five additional family members. This allows you to share and play games from each other’s libraries. Even if a family member is already online and playing a game, you can still access and play their games. Additionally, you will have your own saved games, achievements, and workshop file access.
While not all games support Family Sharing, Valve provides a list of supported games for your reference. Any games that you and your family members own and that support Family Sharing will appear in a new ‘Steam Family’ subsection of your Steam library. Moreover, Steam Families introduce new parental controls that enable adults to set limits on their kids’ gaming activities. You can monitor their playtime, approve or deny access to certain games, and manage community features and friends chat.
One of the notable features of Steam Families is the ability for child accounts to request in-family adults to pay for games in their shopping cart. This eliminates the need for gift purchases or sharing credit card details. Adults can approve or deny these requests via email or the Steam mobile app, making the process of buying games for kids much more convenient.
If you’re interested in trying out the Steam Families beta, you can easily opt into it by following these steps:
1. Open Steam and click on ‘Steam’ in the top left menu
2. Go to Settings, then Interface
3. Select Client Beta Participation from the dropdown menu
4. Choose Steam Family Beta as an option to select
5. Click OK to confirm your selection
Steam Families is a promising new feature that offers improved family sharing options and enhanced parental controls for Steam users. By taking advantage of this feature, you can make gaming experiences more enjoyable and manageable for your whole family. If you’re curious about Steam Families, be sure to give the beta a try and explore its benefits firsthand.
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