Steam family approval: Valve has disabled the well-known sharing function

Steam family approval: Valve has disabled the well-known sharing function 30 comments

Picture: valve

Since 2013, Steam users have been able to provide their library with up to five friendly accounts and up to ten authorized computers. Now Valve has turned off this function, as was communicated in the fall. The Steam family brings a replacement but with new rules.

Summary :

Steam family replaces family trust

Anyone who has lent friends’ games on Steam, whether a proxy for their own account or an authorization for their own computer, has been informed about the soon end of the functionality since the middle of November 2024. Now the time has come, the usual sharing function is gone – at least who can report the editorial team using their own Steam accounts. Community feedback on whether other users can still access the Legacy feature is welcome in the comments.

In any case, from the old version of the family, this does not mean that now it is no longer possible to share Steam libraries. Already in September, Valve introduced a new concept with the Steam family, which has so far coexisted alongside the approval of the old family and which is now inheriting.

Steam Family allows users to create their own family group with up to six members or join such a family if a place is still free. Members of a family then automatically receive access to the entire Steam library of all other members. Games, achievements, and workshop downloads are not synced as usual.

New sharing rules bring benefits

However, some new rules come with the new concept of sharing that can be of advantage or disadvantage depending on the previous constellation of users. The good news first: within a Steam Family, foreign games from another account’s library can be played even if that account itself plays something else. This was not possible with the release of the old Family; another Steam user’s library only had access as long as he himself did not.

The acquired user licenses of a Steam Family are also aggregated: if two family members have the same game in the library, two members of the Steam Family can play this game at the same time. In addition, the new concept goes hand in hand with numerous mechanisms for child locks and regulating the gaming behavior of underage family members. A detailed FAQ page for the Steam Family provides more details.

Member of a single family

However, a steam family is limited to a fixed group of six members who are not allowed to be part of another Steam family and should also live in the same country and even even in the same household. It is possible to leave a family; Since joining the previous family, at least one year must have passed until it is possible to start or join a new family. In addition, leaving a member cannot be occupied by another member for one year by leaving a member.

Valve therefore speaks explicitly of a feature intended for the “nuclear family” who live together in a household, but not to overlap friendship groups and communities for inconsistent purposes, for which the old sharing system was ideal. According to the current state of knowledge, Valve only tries rudimentarily against unwanted account sharing. For example, a test of the IP address can occur when trying to join. If this does not match, entry can be refused. This is currently not implemented consistently for all users, but the provider reserves the right steps.

As an alternative, only the transfer of account details and password now remains, which is much more cumbersome – also because it carries risks on the one hand and on the other hand it is not officially tolerated by Valve.

What do you think of Valve’s new sharing concept?

Depending on the previously established usage behavior of the sharing functions, advantages or disadvantages may outweigh the step towards the Steam family. How is the mood in the community on the basis of computers?

THEMEN: Steam Valve Gaming