Following a beta test earlier this year, Steam Families is now live with a new way for relatives to be connected on the gaming portal. Up to five family members can be invited into a group, which will grant access to a shared family library where each person can create their own save files and collect achievements for games in the family library. The marquee development with the new family feature is that multiple people within the group will be able to play games from the shared library at the same time, including multiple copies of a game owned. However, some game developers may choose not to support this feature. Steam maintains a list of titles that currently have family sharing enabled. Additionally, Steam Families includes the features of the old Steam Family View, allowing adults to monitor and limit children’s activities on the platform. Adults can restrict access to the store, communities, or chat, set playtime limits, approve extensions, and recover a child’s account if needed. However, some restrictions apply, such as the ability for adults to leave a family group at any time but having to wait a year before joining or creating another family. Accounts must also be in the same country to join a family group.
