One of the most annoying things about owning digital games is it’s far harder to share them with those you love in life, but Valve is looking to remedy this with Steam’s newest feature.
Steam Families, which was unveiled by the platform’s creators today, will allow you to share your library of games with up to six members of your family. Using this feature means players can try out all kinds of games from your family’s library without needing to purchase them. You can even play one while someone else is online; a marked change from the old rules when Steam had two ‘family’ systems—Steam Family Sharing and Steam Family View—in place. The new Steam Families, which is now in beta, will replace them both.
While this sounds like the perfect way to avoid spending too much money on games, there are a few things to consider. You won’t be able to play the same game as another member of your Steam family unless two copies are brought. In this situation, with only one copy owned members of the family will need to take turns playing that specific game.
Another important rule is that after joining a family you’ll need to wait an entire year to create or jump in on another. This means there won’t be any way to hop from collection to collection. Lastly, not all games will let you use Steam Families; it’s up to developers to opt in or out, so don’t expect every new release to offer the feature.
Despite all that, this is still a great way for families to share digital games and if you’d like to give it a try, the beta is live now. We expect Valve to make changes to the feature as the beta unfolds, but there’s no reason not to give it a shot today.
