Steam News - Lawrence
Hello! We are excited to announce Steam Families, available today in the Steam Beta Client.

Steam Families is a collection of new and existing family-related features. It replaces both Steam Family Sharing and Steam Family View, giving you a single location to manage which games your family can access and when they can play.

Create a Steam Family

To get started, you can create a Steam Family and then invite up to 5 family members. You can manage your family from your Steam Client, mobile device or web browser.



By joining a Steam Family, each member gains access to the following Steam features:

Family Sharing

When you join a Steam Family, you automatically gain access to the shareable games that your family members own and they will also be able to access the shareable titles in your library. The next time you log in to Steam, this new 'family library' will appear in the left column as a subsection of your games list. You maintain ownership of your current titles and when you purchase a new game it will still show up in your collection.

Best of all, when you are playing a game from your family library, you will create your own saved games, earn your own Steam achievements, have access to workshop files and more.

Family Sharing enables you to play games from other family members' libraries, even if they are online playing another game. If your family library has multiple copies of a game, multiple members of the family can play that game at the same time. For a more detailed look at how Family Sharing works, see the FAQ below.

Family Sharing is a feature that developers may opt their games out of for technical or other reasons at any time. Visit the Steam Store to see a list of games that currently support Family Sharing.



Parental Controls

Steam Families includes new parental controls that allow parents to set limits on what and when children play games on Steam. You can control which games your children have access to and monitor their activity. This information is available from wherever you access Steam, including your mobile device when you are away from home.

Members of a Steam Family can have one of two roles: adult or child. Any adult family member can manage invites and apply account restrictions. Children are subject to parental controls and do not have permissions to manage the family.

Parental control features let adults:
  • Allow access to appropriate games
  • Restrict access to the Steam Store, Community or Friends Chat
  • Set playtime limits (hourly/daily)
  • View playtime reports
  • Approve or deny requests from child accounts for additional playtime or feature access (temporary or permanent)
  • Recover a child's account if they lost their password


Child Purchase Requests

We understand a common (and sometimes time-consuming) task for parents is purchasing games for their children. This usually requires that parents complete a gift purchase or let their kids borrow a credit card.

To streamline this process, Steam Families introduces a new payment option where a child account can request an in-family adult to pay for their shopping cart. The adult can approve and pay for the purchase from their mobile device or email. Once approved, all games from the shopping cart will be added to the child's account.



Join the Steam Family Beta

To test the new Steam Families feature, you will need to be opted into the Steam Family Beta. Any family members you invite will also need to join the beta. 
  • While Steam is running, click on Steam upper left, then choose the "Settings" menu.
  • Select Interface, then under "Client Beta Participation" select the dropdown menu
  • Select Steam Family Beta from the drop down list, and click OK. You'll be prompted to restart Steam at this point.


Once opted in, go to Account Details on the Store page, then click on the Family Management section.


FAQ

Who can be in a Steam Family?

While we know that families come in many shapes and sizes, Steam Families is intended for a household of up to 6 close family members.

To that end, as we monitor the usage of this feature, we may adjust the requirements for participating in a Steam Family or the number of members over time to keep usage in line with this intent.


Can I leave a Steam Family?

Steam Families are intended to contain your immediate family. As major life events can change who lives in your household, it is understandable that some day you may need to join a new Steam Family. Adults can leave a family at any time, however, they will need to wait 1 year from when they joined the previous family to create or join a new family.

Children in a Steam Family cannot leave the family themselves and must be removed by an adult in the family or by Steam Support.

As it is rare that a family member leaves the family, each Steam Family slot has a cooldown of one year before a new member can occupy that slot.


Can I be kicked out of a Steam Family?

Yes, adult family members can kick any family member out of the Steam Family.


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 chose 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.


Which games are currently eligible for Family Sharing?

A game's developer controls whether a game is eligible for sharing with Steam Families. All developer settings for the previous Steam Family Sharing feature are being brought forward to Steam Families. So, if a game is currently eligible for Family Sharing, it will remain so in the new system unless the developer chooses to opt-out later.

In addition, not all games can be shared due to technical limitations. For example, titles that require an additional third-party key, account, or subscription in order to play cannot be shared between accounts.

We want as many games as possible to be accessible via Family Sharing, but we realize some games might have special cases where this feature isn’t feasible or doesn’t give users a good experience. Developers who have these concerns can reach out to us via the partner support page to get help with options and solutions.


Do I need to share all of my games with my family?

By joining a family, all games are automatically shared with the other members in your family. Adult accounts can use parental controls to limit which games each child in the Family can access.


What happens if my brother gets banned for cheating while playing my game?

If a family member gets banned for cheating while playing your copy of a game, you (the game owner) will also be banned in that game. Other family members are not impacted.


Do I need to be online to play a shared game?

You can play games from the Family library offline as long as that game supports Family Sharing.


I'm currently using the existing Steam Family Sharing feature. What happens now with Steam Families?

You should set up a Steam Family! Once done, Steam will automatically recommend inviting any accounts that you were previously sharing with.


I'm currently using the Family View feature with my family. What happens now with Steam Families?

If you create a Steam Family and add a child account, any existing Family View settings associated with that account will be transferred to Steam Families under Parental Controls. The ability to unlock controls by entering a PIN will be removed, but the settings are otherwise untouched. Once they've joined the family, you can modify their parental controls at any time.


Have more questions about Steam Families? See our Support FAQ.

We'd love to hear what you think about this new feature. Let us know in the Steam Families forum.
Steam News - kaci


The sights and sounds of spring have arrived on Steam! And as you can tell by our official trailer, by "sights," we mean "LOOK AT ALL OF THESE GAMES ON SALE!" and by "sounds" we mean "LISTEN TO ALL OF THESE GAMES ON SALE!"

A lot of folks like to use this time of year to do a little "spring cleaning" around the house, but we won't judge if you "spring clean" your Steam library instead. Explore discounts, demos, and more on thousands of games of all kinds; plus visit daily for free sticker drops!

The Steam Spring Sale, March 14th through 21st at 10am Pacific.
Steam News - Emilyk
The latest shopping cart update is out of beta and is now available to everyone on Steam across the desktop client, Steam Deck, and mobile.

Here’s a summary of the new features if you missed the initial blog post.

  • Inline gifting: Gift to multiple friends in one go, with streamlined messaging for hassle-free checkout.
  • One cart across all devices: Your cart now follows you seamlessly anywhere you're signed in to Steam (including Deck and mobile), ensuring a unified shopping experience wherever you go.
  • Private purchasing: Maintain your privacy by marking games as private before purchase, giving you control from the start.
  • Private Apps: Mark selected games as private so they are only visible to you, giving you more control over what you share with friends. This lets you keep your Steam Library visible to your friends, so they can see what you are playing and join in, yet also keep a few of those games just to yourself.

During the beta period we made improvements and fixed bugs – thanks to your feedback! DLC for private apps will also default to private, but you can customize that from App Properties in the game’s Library Details page. And when you’re playing a private app you’ll be reminded of your status with a privacy indicator at the top of your Friends List.

You’ll find these new features next time you sign in to Steam – including on mobile devices and Steam Deck.

Your feedback is essential as we continue to improve. Share your thoughts with us, and stay tuned for more updates to checkout!
Steam News - kaci


(How many terrible movie references did we cram into the trailer? Watch and count! Or don't, it's kind of embarrassing for us.)

Steam's Dinos vs. Robots Fest celebrates games that let you play with dinosaurs or robots. Or dinosaurs AND robots. Or AS dinosaurs and robots! You get the gist.

From now until March 4th at 10am PT, you'll find discounts on all sorts of dinosaur and robot games on Steam. And don't forget to swing by the Points Shop for some free dinos/robots-themed items!

Steam News - kaci
From now until February 19th at 10am PT, Steam’s Remote Play Together 2024 Fest celebrates games you can play together, no matter where you’re playing from.

Enjoy sitting next to each other on the couch? Great. Prefer playing with folks who live hundreds of miles away? Fantastic. These are games where more IS merrier, no matter how close you are (physically-speaking, we mean. Emotional distance is a convo for therapy).

Head on over now to Steam's Remote Play Together Fest and enjoy a full week of discounts, demos, and all kinds of fun.

Steam News - kaci
There are just a few days left to check out the hundreds of free demos in the February 2024 edition of Steam Next Fest! These are all free and shared by developers from all over the world as they prepare for an eventual full game launch on Steam.

We are keenly aware that having hundreds of playable demos available for a week can be both exciting and overwhelming; so below, we're surfacing a few of the most-played so far in case it helps you plan your weekend of gaming.

Steam Next Fest continues through February 12th at 10am PT; play what's next and wishlist your favorites to be notified once the full game launches. After it concludes, we'll share the most-played demos of the entire event. But in the meantime, here are the ten most-played so far:


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2700330

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2764900

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2495220

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2549740

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2756310

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2444170

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2778490

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2478080

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2729930

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2606950


The Universim - Valve
The Universim is Now Available on Steam!

Jump straight into managing your own planets as you guide a civilization through the ages. Build the ultimate empire in The Universim, a new breed of God Game in development by Crytivo.
Steam News - taylors
A new Steam client has been released and will be automatically downloaded.

Steam Cloud
  • Fix to not perform platform-change maintenance when the old and new platforms are compatible

Steam News - TomB (Valve)
A new Steam client has been released and will be automatically downloaded.

General
  • Fixed "Friends who Play" section not refreshing until the client was restarted
  • Double clicking on Window tray icon when parental controls are enabled will open the Library when the store is locked.
  • Fix "View Additional Artwork" button not properly showing content on soundtrack details pages.

Steam Workshop
  • Re-designed the Workshop subscriptions list (accessible from Game Properties). It now includes the ability to sort by subscription date, last updated, size, name, and load order.
  • Added ability to change the local load order of Workshop item subscriptions.
  • Added ability to set the local order based on any Workshop item dependencies (these dependencies are set by the author on the Workshop items themselves).
  • Added ability to disable Workshop item subscriptions locally, which will hide them from the game.
  • Added the ability to filter the Workshop subscriptions list by tag name. Use the same search field for filtering items by name.
  • The name of the Workshop item being download is now shown in the game's tooltip on the Downloads page.
  • Added functionality that allows swapping the items in your subscription list quickly using collections:
    • Added ability to save the filtered list of items to a new or existing Workshop collection. This will overwrite the contents of the collection with the contents of the list.
    • Added ability to overwrite the user's subscription list to just the contents of a Workshop collection.
    • Added ability to add items from a collection to the user's subscription list.

Steam Overlay
  • Fixed web browser tabs resetting when overlay is closed and reopened with "Restore my previous browser tabs" setting disabled.
  • Fixed web browser opening with only home page tab when a game opens a web link with with "Restore my previous browser tabs" setting disabled.
  • Fixed previous web browser tabs being dropped when a game opens a web link with with "Restore my previous browser tabs" setting enabled.


SteamVR
  • Option on recent games page to only show VR games.
  • Double click on Window tray icon in desktop view will now open the main Steam window.
  • Fix for rare crash when showing or hiding non-VR apps in the SteamVR dashboard
  • Automatically select SteamVR as the OpenXR runtime in cases where only the SteamVR runtime could work, such as when using Steam Link in VR. Does not affect the user's persistent runtime selection.
  • Fixed gamma issue with non-VR apps that use 10-10-10-2 backbuffers.
  • Pause capture of non-VR apps while headset is idle.

Remote Play
  • Improved performance and smoothness when using NVIDIA hardware encoding
  • Fixed a video freeze when moving the mouse to a monitor on another video adapter

Big Picture Mode
  • Adjusted the recent games page header so that it's visible when changing selection.

SteamInput
  • Fixed Controller LED Color selector UI.
  • Fixed a crash related to non-Steam Shortcuts
  • Increased range of Gyro to Mouse/Gyro to Joystick(Deflection) Precision Zone

Steam Cloud
  • Fix uploading for some apps which have a very large number of files
  • Fix sync for some apps which store files in the Windows user home directory

Linux
  • Fixed a crash in "Call of Duty: Black Ops III" when switching maps.
  • Fixed situations causing the Steam client to only download the Windows version of a title and later attempting to run it without Proton.
Team Fortress 2 - Valve
An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

  • Fixed a server crash related to PASS Time and the round timer at the end of a round
  • Fixed overlapping texture for the Panic Attack's kill icon
  • Updated the Winning Spirit Unusual effect to fix problems with clipping and the control points
  • Updated cp_brew
    • Fixed missing textures on a truck
    • Fixed unintended sentry spot on top of the HVAC pipes at the Brewery
  • Updated pl_camber
    • Fixed respawn room exploit
  • Updated plr_hacksaw
    • Fixed teleporters being able to be placed in spawn
    • Removed hint nodes from the hacking sequence
  • Updated plr_hacksaw_event
    • Fixed teleporters being able to be placed in spawn
    • Updated to match layout changes to plr_hacksaw
  • Updated ctf_pelican_peak
    • Removed skybox bridge for dx8 users
    • Adjusted cow
    • Miscellaneous fixes
  • Updated pl_corruption
    • Fixed an issue with the 3D skybox
...

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