Valve has launched Steam Families – a streamlined, enhanced version of its existing household game sharing tools – and it’s available for testing now in public beta form.
Valve also notes individual accounts using Steam Families now have their own saved games, earn their own Steam achievements, and have individual access to Steam Workshop files.
Steam Families combines and replaces features previously available through Valve’s Steam Family Sharing and Steam Family View tools, and creates a way for up to six family members to share a combined games library – consisting of titles (including owned DLC) from across each member’s individual library – that can be accessed at any time, with a few provisos.
Additionally, Steam Families offers a new suit of parental control tools (accessible via the Steam client, a mobile device, or web browser) that enables members assigned as ‘adults’ to monitor and manage game access to accounts registered as ‘child’.