It's fantastic tbh. Less convenient for people who just abuse family share with random people, but for actual families or close groups of long-term friends it's glorious.
this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2024
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Steam Deck
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How is it different from the beta one that we already had? I looked today and I'm still in the beta one and there is no other option to the actual one!
This is the same as the beta version, but is distinctly different from what we used to have. Previously playing a shared game locked down the entire library, now it just locks the one copy of the game. Previously you had to sign in on the same device to make it happen, now you can invite into the family remotely. Previously you could switch people in and out easily, now there's a six person limit on the family and a one year cooldown on both the slot and the member who chooses to leave a family.
Overall it's better as long as you didn't abuse the system before.
Previously playing a shared game locked down the entire library, now it just locks the one copy of the game.
This is by far the best thing ever for me. My 10 year old son is always hogging the damn thing and I never get to play. 😂 Thank you valve for locking only the game. I'm so freaking happy, you have no idea. I still don't understand the cooldown part, but meh, I got what I've always dreamed of, and that is what I care about.
This might be a dumb question, but can you share non steam games that are in your library?
No, not through Steam Families. Steam servers don't host non-Steam games that you put in your library, it just launches the executable for you when you click play.
That's what I figured. Good call on the games not being on the servers, I didn't think about that. Thanks
I think you can Steam Remote Play Together with non-Steam games, but that's the only way to "share" them that I know of.
There's no mechanism by which that could work.
Yes I know. The question was answered hours before you replied.
This implementation of steam families has been available in beta for several months. This is just the non-beta roll-out of the feature to everyone.
Very nice - glad to not need the beta since it messed with some Steam Deck stuff like Gungeon video settings and the default dock volume...
It all looks simple and commonsense so far, as to be expected.
Have they solved the issue that multiple people can't be playing at the same time, or the same game at the same time?
I don't even do families. One of us just goes into offline mode for the time. Slightly obnoxious.
Previously a family member could only play your shared library if you weren't playing any game.
With this new steam families, they can play any game except the game you're actively playing (unless the family collectively owns multiple copies). So if me and my son want to play Lethal Company together we need two copies.
Cool. Well that is certainly a step forward. Thanks.
It just basically combines your libraries now. So if the license is in use, nobody else can use it unless there are multiple licenses. Offline will still work for your own games and you can choose the best version to play. E.g. I have Isaac but only 1 dlc while my gf has all of the dlc so I can just play her version when she's not playing it.
This has a nasty side effect barely related to the family features… it killed the Family View pin. The only thing that could coax bloody GeForce Now to sync with Steam cloud instead of killing the session instantly as you quit the game. There’s no other feature that can lock games from running like Family View did, isn’t there?
I'm excited for this. I just got my wife a Deck used to play Escape Simulator together, but this will make it a lot easier for her to play most of my other games, now, too.
Sadly Dragon Age 3 can't be shared, which I should have added to her account, not mine... But we only had 1 Deck at the time! (On the other hand, I'll be able to play most of my library on her device while she's playing, so not a big deal!)
I've been on the beta for this, and it's a fantastic feature. I bought a Steam Deck and added it to my family with a separate account and it's been so incredibly convenient for us as a family.
how safe is it to use with my dad and brother? my dad likes rollercoaster tycoon so i shared it with him the old way.
The only risk is that if someone gets banned using your copy of a game, you'll be banned too.
So if you owned Rainbow Six, and your brother and as playing with your family copy and he got banned, you would be banned as well.
Thankfully we've hopefully grown out of that phase but that sounds good! I don't think I have to worry about that too much!