Separating my son’s games from mine

[TwelveZ]

My son is 14 now. Some years ago, when he was 9/10 ish, he started wanting to play games and I let him use my Steam account to buy a few games and play them on his PC. Now he is old enough and has enough of his own games that we’re starting to run into an issue where we both want to play at the same time (separate games; we don’t play any of the same games) but can’t both be logged into my account at the same time. An easy solution would seem to be to create a new acct for him and transfer his games to that acct - again, we don’t play any of the same games, so this would be easy.
However, doing my research here and on the internet, as well as asking Steam Support, it seems like this is not possible. Wondering if anyone has any suggestions. I’d hate to have to re-buy and re-download all his games again.

[jeremitz]

Hi, there is a family share option if you make new account for him you can share your own library to his account and you can both play games (different games it won't let you play the same game).

[Cathulhu]

It is indeed not possible to transfer the games to another account.
You could use Family Share as a stopgap measure and rebuy the games when they are on sale.

Keep in mind that sharing accounts is explicitly forbidden in the Steam Subscriber Agreement and grounds for a permanent account suspension or even termination.

@Jeeremitz
You can not access the same library from two accounts. Only one account is allowed to access a game library at any given time.

[Silicon Vampire]

You can not transfer games to a different account. Just get that out of the equation right now.

You can family share some games but that will not fix your issue and probably just make it more complicated for a few reasons...

Your best bet is to have him create his own account and start repurchasing the titles he is still playing on it... on sale, of course.

[Ogami]

Originally posted by TwelveZ:

However, doing my research here and on the internet, as well as asking Steam Support, it seems like this is not possible. Wondering if anyone has any suggestions. I’d hate to have to re-buy and re-download all his games again.

This is pretty much what this is going to end with.
There is no way to transfer game licenses between accounts and using Steam Family Share means that only one person can use that library at any given time.
Thats why sharing accounts is against the TOS. Its suggested that parents make a extra account for their kids with their games and control via "Family View" which games they have access to and which Steam functions.

In the end i can only recommend, put the games your son wants on a wishlist so you get notified when they are on sale, you can also look around on sites like
https://isthereanydeal.com/ to see if the games in question are currently on sale at a authorized Steam key reseller store.
In the end it might not nearly be as expensive as you think, PC games lose value pretty fast and if you take into accounts sales that happen all the time on multiple stores you can set up a complete collection rather cheap again on a new account.

[Silicon Vampire]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Originally posted by TwelveZ:

However, doing my research here and on the internet, as well as asking Steam Support, it seems like this is not possible. Wondering if anyone has any suggestions. I’d hate to have to re-buy and re-download all his games again.

This is pretty much what this is going to end with.
There is no way to transfer game licenses between accounts and using Steam Family Share means that only one person can use that library at any given time.
Thats why sharing accounts is against the TOS. Its suggested that parents make a extra account for their kids with their games and control via "Family View" which games they have access to and which Steam functions.

In the end i can only recommend, put the games your son wants on a wishlist so you get notified when they are on sale, you can also look around on sites like
https://isthereanydeal.com/ to see if the games in question are currently on sale at a authorized Steam key reseller store.
In the end it might not nearly be as expensive as you think, PC games lose value pretty fast and if you take into accounts sales that happen all the time on multiple stores you can set up a complete collection rather cheap again on a new account.

This is truly the best course of action with one caveat. Don't use wallet funds to send gifts to other accounts on a regular basis. The system seems to flag that behavior and abruptly stop *current and future purchases using wallet funds. (* - account isn't notified until checkout which it won't allow using wallet funds)

Either gift using a standard payment method or have purchases made on intended account.

[TwelveZ]

Thanks for the replies. Kinda what I figured, but thought I’d see if there was a brilliant solution out there I had not seen. Family Share won’t work bc it has to be on the same machine.
I get the TOS bars sharing accounts. But what the proper steps were as a parent in the beginning were not obvious, and besides I didn’t know whether he was even going to become a serious player. Had I to do it over again I would have created a separate acct for him for sure.
Q: when I rebuy his game on his new acct, but the game files are already on his pc from before, do I have to uninstall the old copy and redownload it new?

[Silicon Vampire]

Family sharing doesn't have to be the same machine...

As for the install question, it would really depend on if it was a steam installation to begin with and how old it is...

[jeremitz]

Q: when I rebuy his game on his new acct, but the game files are already on his pc from before, do I have to uninstall the old copy and redownload it new?

No if you already have game installed and you just log in to a different account you don't need to redownload the game

[Cathulhu]

Family Share does not require to be the same computer.

[TwelveZ]

Originally posted by Silicon Vampire:

Family sharing doesn't have to be the same machine...

It seems to have to be, according to this: https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/57A7-503C-991F-E9A8

[Cathulhu]

"Here you can deauthorize any computer or account that's been authorized to share your library."
Even the article you linked tells you that you can share across multiple computers.

[Haruspex]

Some foresight would have been helpful here. My own son is 15, and the first time he wanted a PC game that I didn't want for myself, we set him up his own Steam account. I think he was 8. Now as a 15 year old he has his own PC and his own Steam account with hundreds of games on it. I think both of us are happier and better off for it. He can freely play his own games, and I don't have to worry about him using my PC or my Steam account.

You cannot transfer games from one account to another, but you're still going to want him to set up an account. Better late than never. A decent stopgap is Steam Family Sharing. This will give your son access to most of your games through his own account, but only one player is allowed to play on one account at a time. This means if your son is playing one of your games on another PC, he will be kicked off the moment you start to play something else.

Originally posted by TwelveZ:

Q: when I rebuy his game on his new acct, but the game files are already on his pc from before, do I have to uninstall the old copy and redownload it new?

When a game is installed that the logged-in account doesn't own, the "play" button is replaced with a button that brings you to the store page to buy it. If you buy the game, it becomes a "play" button again. No need to reinstall.

[Silicon Vampire]

Originally posted by TwelveZ:

Originally posted by Silicon Vampire:

Family sharing doesn't have to be the same machine...

It seems to have to be, according to this: https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/57A7-503C-991F-E9A8

Not if you read all of the document...

[nullable]

Originally posted by TwelveZ:

Q: when I rebuy his game on his new acct, but the game files are already on his pc from before, do I have to uninstall the old copy and redownload it new?

No. the game files are just data. It's the account and it's licenses access that matter. If you have an account, you have a license, it doesn't really matter where the game files came from so long as they're working/valid.

Back in the day my wife and I would both buy a game, say GTA V. I'd download it to my machine, and then copy the files to her machine to save download time. She had a valid license to play the game, and she had the game files, so no problem.

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

There is no legit way, but there is one way which is illegal...