Steam Family Beta Sharing - Joint Access

[LordyMatsuo]

I've recently enabled the Steam Family Beta version for me and my son. I have set up a family and added us both to it.

With this new family sharing feature does it still lock the entire account or just the game.

For example if my son is playing Game A from my library on his laptop and i want to play Game B does that work or will one of us be kicked from playing.

I understand we can't both play the same game but wasn't sure if we can play different games without limits?

As far as i understand the current family sharing feature on the main branch it locks my entire account so hoping this new beta version is a bit more flexible.

Anyone tested this to save me the hassle of testing in depth myself.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by LordyMatsuo:

Steam Family Beta Sharing - Joint Access

I've recently enabled the Steam Family Beta version for me and my son. I have set up a family and added us both to it.

With this new family sharing feature does it still lock the entire account or just the game.

For example if my son is playing Game A from my library on his laptop and i want to play Game B does that work or will one of us be kicked from playing.

I understand we can't both play the same game but wasn't sure if we can play different games without limits?

As far as i understand the current family sharing feature on the main branch it locks my entire account so hoping this new beta version is a bit more flexible.

Anyone tested this to save me the hassle of testing in depth myself.

Can we go through a real world example of how a Steam Family might share games?

Of course! Let's say that you are in a family with 4 members and that you own a copy of Portal 2 and a copy of Half-Life. At any time, any one member can play Portal 2 and another can play Half-Life. If two of you would like to play Portal 2 at the same time, someone else in the family will need to purchase a copy of the game. After that purchase, there are two owned copies of Portal 2 across the family and any two members can play at the same time.

In this example, if your family choose to not buy a second copy, you can play any other game in your library while waiting for your family member to finish playing your copy of Portal 2.

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/054C-3167-DD7F-49D4#frequent

[LordyMatsuo]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Originally posted by LordyMatsuo:

Steam Family Beta Sharing - Joint Access

I've recently enabled the Steam Family Beta version for me and my son. I have set up a family and added us both to it.

With this new family sharing feature does it still lock the entire account or just the game.

For example if my son is playing Game A from my library on his laptop and i want to play Game B does that work or will one of us be kicked from playing.

I understand we can't both play the same game but wasn't sure if we can play different games without limits?

As far as i understand the current family sharing feature on the main branch it locks my entire account so hoping this new beta version is a bit more flexible.

Anyone tested this to save me the hassle of testing in depth myself.

Can we go through a real world example of how a Steam Family might share games?

Of course! Let's say that you are in a family with 4 members and that you own a copy of Portal 2 and a copy of Half-Life. At any time, any one member can play Portal 2 and another can play Half-Life. If two of you would like to play Portal 2 at the same time, someone else in the family will need to purchase a copy of the game. After that purchase, there are two owned copies of Portal 2 across the family and any two members can play at the same time.

In this example, if your family choose to not buy a second copy, you can play any other game in your library while waiting for your family member to finish playing your copy of Portal 2.

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/054C-3167-DD7F-49D4#frequent

:cool_seagull:

Wow that sounds perfect, even the part about sharing multiple copies so if i have 4 members in family who own 2 copies any 2 members can play together not just the owners. Amazing stuff. Time to start buying the back catalog of games i have been wanting so my family can share/play them.