Valve finally switches off Steam family libraries

The family approval function on the Steam game platform is finally history after 12 years. Valve switches them off in favor of the successor function Steam families, which has so far been in parallel since completion in September 2024. If you want to share games on Steam, you have to set up a Steam family. That has advantages and disadvantages.

Advertisement

With the Steam families, Valve creates the biggest restriction of the previous family libraries: members can now play different titles from the same account in parallel. Steam used to block the entire library for others as soon as the owner started any game. Several family members can only play the same title if they buy it several times. Functionally new are right -wing restrictions for children.

Fewer opportunities for friends

For friends, Valve limits the opportunity to share games. Users can only join one Steam family, which is also limited to six members. You can only join a Steam family every 12 months and as soon as you leave one, the space has been blocked for as long. Valve admits in its own blogthat family relationships can change, but probably not so often that constant changes were necessary.

There are also reports on Redditthat Steam families can often only be set up if the members have been in the same network (via WLAN or Ethernet). Apparently Valve carries out a similar IP balance as the video streaming service Netflix. After the initial facility, the location at Steam should not care.

Larger or several friends of friends can no longer share games with each other. In addition, users can hardly buy steam accounts with individual games and link them to the main account.