Does playing non-shareable games prevent sharing?

According to the Steam Family Sharing FAQ:

Can all Steam games be shared with friends and family?

No, due to technical limitations, some Steam games may be unavailable for sharing. For example, titles that require an additional third-party key, account, or subscription in order to play cannot be shared between accounts.

I understand that if I am playing any game in my shared library other people cannot use my games. However, when I am playing my own non-shareable game will other people be able to play my shared games?

Sorry if this seems an odd question. I am trying to understand the feature limitations. Basically, if there is no such limitation I could start up one of my non-shareable games whilst a family member continues playing a shared game. I just want to know if that is actually an option.


Short answer is no. You can't play any Steam games if you want a family member to play any of the shared games. Even games that are not shared lock your library to you only.

If for example one plays GTA V (which is not possible to be shared as far as I know) which is using Rockstar Social Club too, a friend or family member won't be able to play any of the shared games. When you stop playing he/she will get a notification from Steam saying "Hooray, 's library is free to play" or something like that.

To clarify - whenever Steam turns your status to green (in-game) and it's not a non-steam shortcut the library is locked for you. Basically all games activated on Steam apply here.


This simply means that you can't share all games for example everything on UPlay (Assassins Creed, Splinter Cell and so on). If you play your own non-shareable game, it doesn't matter, everyone of your shared accounts can access the other games which are shareable. The only limitation within the family sharing is that you can't play the same game at the same time.


Steam Games which are tightly combined with your Steam ID belong into this category as well.

The most famous example for this is CS:GO, you can launch it though, but you can't connect any game since the game is connected to the buyer's Steam ID.