Does setting a game as private do literally nothing?

[fatigue]

I marked a game as private, launched it, and it said in my friends list that I was playing it and in my profile it shows in recent activity.

[Crashed]

It worked for me. It still shows locally but your friends should not see you in-game.

[Anzoken]

I think it shouldn't be showing up locally. This makes the implementation not truly private since it still shows up for yourself and family member accounts on your PC. Family Sharing accounts can see the 'in library' status for store pages as well.

Had to refund a few games after this, I think it defeats the purpose. At least for me personally.

[Crashed]

Originally posted by Anzoken:

I think it shouldn't be showing up locally. This makes the implementation not truly private since it still shows up for yourself and family member accounts on your PC. Family Sharing accounts can see the 'in library' status for store pages as well.

Had to refund a few games after this, I think it defeats the purpose. At least for me personally.

Check the latest beta; it should be fixed for family share accounts.

[fatigue]

Some sort of visual feedback for game playtime on our profiles like "Only visible to you" next to the playtime of a private game would be a good idea. Also in the friend's list. Currently, unless I look at my profile after logging out, it looks like my private game isn't private at all.

I would do an Elder Scrolls "stealth-mode" closed eye that says "Only visible to you" in tooltip when hovered over.

[Marlfox]

open incognito mode in a browser and look at your profile

[fatigue]

Originally posted by Marlfox:

open incognito mode in a browser and look at your profile

Yeah, you shouldn't have to.

[Marlfox]

Originally posted by fatigue:

Originally posted by Marlfox:

open incognito mode in a browser and look at your profile

Yeah, you shouldn't have to.

Point is you get a look at how others see your profile exactly. If there is any doubt.

[Marionette]

'Played for the first time' notifications are still showing up on Activity feeds, despite private setting for individual games.

[MistakesMade]

First time launches and achievements pretty much bypass private setting, so yeah, private doesn't really help.

[fatigue]

Originally posted by Marionette:

'Played for the first time' notifications are still showing up on Activity feeds, despite private setting for individual games.

Good catch. I have that same issue.

[Seiren]

Originally posted by MistakesMade:

First time launches and achievements pretty much bypass private setting, so yeah, private doesn't really help.

The only workaround is to have the entire account set to private, which defeats the point of selecting individual games at this time. Hopefully, they get it sorted in the near future.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Originally posted by Anzoken:

I think it shouldn't be showing up locally. This makes the implementation not truly private since it still shows up for yourself and family member accounts on your PC. Family Sharing accounts can see the 'in library' status for store pages as well.

Had to refund a few games after this, I think it defeats the purpose. At least for me personally.

Then stop sharing that way. Which is dumb anyways, make em use their own accounts.

It can't be private that way because the family sharing is part of that one account. When you as a logged in user views the account, none of that stuff is private, only to OTHERS such as Steam Friends or general Steam users.