Valve announced Steam Families, a new way to share games, monitor your kids' activity, and streamline purchases on Steam.
Currently available in beta, it replaces both Steam Family Sharing and Steam Family View.
Players can create Steam Family Groups of up to six members and manage them from the Steam client, mobile device, or web browser.
Family members can play each other's shareable games, but they cannot play the same title at the same time unless they own multiple copies.
Each player can create their own saved games, earn their own Steam achievements, and access workshop files, among other features.
“Family Sharing is a feature that allows developers to opt out of their games at any time for technical or other reasons,” Valve said. A list of games that currently support this feature can be found here.
Steam Families also introduces new parental controls that allow adults in the group to set limits on when children can play games.
Parents can also monitor what their children are playing with and restrict access to various shopping and social features.
There's also a new payment option that allows child accounts to request a shopping cart purchase from an adult in the household, who can do so using a mobile device or email.
To test Steam Family, players must opt into the Steam Family Beta. Please see the official FAQ for more information.
Steam set an all-time record on Sunday with over 36.29 million concurrent players.
Valve started its Steam Spring Sale last week. The company says the promotion will run until March 21 and includes discounts on thousands of games.
