Family Sharing Annoyances

[AlmostNotDumb]

Has anything ever changed on Family Sharing in recent years? I want my kid to be able to play the games I own while I play a different game than they are playing. For example. I want to play Black Myth: Wukong on my PC while my kid plays Spider-Man on my Steam Deck. I own both games on my account. I have a separate account for my kid to log into on my Steam Deck. When I’m not playing my kid can play anything I own while having their own save files. If I want to play the same game at the same time as them, I buy a second copy. Works fine, but I don’t understand why my entire library has to be checked out while I’m playing anything. I imagined it being like the old days when we had discs. Anyone could put the disc in any computer, but two computers couldn’t play it at the same time.

Even Nintendo, of all companies, is more family sharing friendly than Steam is. I have two Nintendo Switches. I can log them both into my account, but I have to choose one as the primary and the other as secondary. If I buy a digital copy of Super Mario Odyssey, then both Nintendos can play Super Mario Odyssey at the same time. The only caveat is that the secondary switch cannot play owned games offline. It needs to connect to the internet to verify you own the game you want to play before it lets the game start. If you mostly play at home, or are willing to temporarily use your smartphone as a hotspot, this isn’t an issue at all. Lastly, you only have to buy two copies of a game if you both intend on playing the same game online at the same time. This makes it a no brainer for me to buy new single player games since both me and my kid can play them at the same time for the price of one. If Steam worked this way I’d probably get another Steam Deck.

The introduction of the Steam Deck probably made this a more common issue since it is more kid friendly and cheaper than a second PC. It’s also common that if someone owns a Steam Deck, they probably also own a PC. All I’m asking for is that Steam lets my kid play anything I’m not currently playing, so I can still play games without kicking them off. Am I doing something wrong? Or is this still how this crap works in 2024? This is literally the only complaint I have against Valve. If they’re worried about people sharing with different households, it shouldn’t be hard for them to just make it work as long as both devices are coming from the same IP address.

[Emilio]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/593110/view/4149575031735702628?l=english

Go and use the new family beta.
It literally does exactly what you want it do do from your long post.

[AlmostNotDumb]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Emilio:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/593110/view/4149575031735702628?l=english

Go and use the new family beta.
It literally does exactly what you want it do do from your long post.

Thank you! I swear I read about this at one point and just never saw anything happen. Had no idea it was a beta feature. I’ll do it now.

And yeah sorry about my long post. I just wanted to make sure my problem was clearly outlined to avoid a bunch of people coming up with answers to what they thought was my question.

Thanks again!