Why can we not play a game on the steam deck and the PC at the same time on the same network?

[milocricket]

This just seems totally ridiculous, especially with the new family update. Why are we not able to have a session open on multiple devices on the same network now? It's extremely annoying to keep relogging into both devices constantly just so I can run games on both my computer and steam deck.

[Ben Lubar]

this is the third thread I've replied to today with "switch one of them to offline mode and it'll do what you want"

[rawWwRrr]

Because the Library is only meant to be used by one person at a time. Family Sharing isn't about lending individual games. It's about giving someone access to your library when you're not using it without giving them access to your account.

[Haruspex]

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Because the Library is only meant to be used by one person at a time. Family Sharing isn't about lending individual games. It's about giving someone access to your library when you're not using it without giving them access to your account.

The new families feature changes that. I can play game A from my account while my wife plays game B, also from my account and my son plays game C, also from my account, simultaneously.

However I cannot play game A from my account on my desktop and also run game B on my Steam Deck, unless I put my Steam Deck into offline mode first. That's what OP's complaint is about.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by milocricket:

Why can we not play a game on the steam deck and the PC at the same time on the same network?

This just seems totally ridiculous, especially with the new family update. Why are we not able to have a session open on multiple devices on the same network now? It's extremely annoying to keep relogging into both devices constantly just so I can run games on both my computer and steam deck.

Originally posted by philipla:

Steam Families does not address this feature request.

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamfamilies/discussions/0/7204143093508064153/

[milocricket]

Originally posted by Haruspex:

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Because the Library is only meant to be used by one person at a time. Family Sharing isn't about lending individual games. It's about giving someone access to your library when you're not using it without giving them access to your account.

The new families feature changes that. I can play game A from my account while my wife plays game B, also from my account and my son plays game C, also from my account, simultaneously.

However I cannot play game A from my account on my desktop and also run game B on my Steam Deck, unless I put my Steam Deck into offline mode first. That's what OP's complaint is about.

This is exactly what I'm talking about. I figured the family update would fix this but it did not. I could even understand if they didn't allow it in other networks but not allowing it on the same network just seems like nonsense.

[milocricket]

Originally posted by Ben Lubar:

this is the third thread I've replied to today with "switch one of them to offline mode and it'll do what you want"

I do that already but Im posting in this topic because you shouldn't have to do that in the first place.

[Kronii]

Same problem, Running blender and substance Painter on PC for work then would want to game on deck while on lunch wont let me without closing programs on pc first

[William Shakesman]

The real answer is probably that the Steam Deck is a computer. If you can log in to two computers at once to play vidya, then you can log in to theoretically infinitely many computers at once that AREN'T Steam Decks, which means your account can be shared without restriction. There's nothing specific about a Deck that can force this sort of thing to Deck Only that I could not trivially duplicate on any other OS were I a bad actor. As you well know, Valve Time is such that Steam can have broken features in production for literally nine months before a fix, so you're probably up against a decade of Valve Time before they figure out a way to square that circle and it is not an easy thing to solve.