Fall Guys Steam Family Sharing has been disabled today for what may seem like a strange reason: Mediatonic is trying to put a stop to cheaters.
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout has been tremendously popular in its first month, selling millions of copies on both Steam and the PlayStation 4. That level of insane popularity also introduces a problem, however — some people are cheating at the game.
Earlier this week, the game's official Twitter mentioned that the cheating problem was a "top priority" for them. Currently, cheaters are banned at the end of a Show (that is, a full game) rather than during the course of the Show.
While they're working on this problem, a new issue has emerged and Mediatonic has taken another step to thwart the jerks ruining our games by hacking: it's made the decision to temporarily disable Fall Guys Steam Family Sharing.
If you're unaware of this feature, Steam Family Sharing is a neat bonus feature that's been built into Valve's digital distribution platform for a few years now. You can link together multiple accounts of the same household and essentially allow someone else to play your games when you're not using your Steam account. Unfortunately, the way Fall Guys works also meant that this convenience opened the door to cheaters evading bans.
Why Was Fall Guys Steam Family Sharing Disabled?
Fall Guys Steam Family Sharing was disabled for one simple reason: cheaters were using this feature to get around their bans.
"We discovered cheaters were using Family-Sharing to get around our banning system on Steam by creating new accounts and sharing with themselves, so we've unfortunately had to disable that for now," stated a tweet on the game's official account. "It should massively help with the cheating issues though!"
Mediatonic is hopeful that it will be able to restore Fall Guys Steam Family Sharing sooner rather than later. In the meantime, it says that you can let family members use your account to play the game, although this might not be the best idea as it likely violates the Steam subscriber agreement:
When you complete Steam’s registration process, you create a Steam account ("Account"). Your Account may also include billing information you provide to Valve for the purchase of Subscriptions, Content and Services and any physical goods offered for purchase through Steam (“Hardware”). You may not reveal, share or otherwise allow others to use your password or Account except as otherwise specifically authorized by Valve.
That said, you the Fall Guys Twitter also notes that you can just buy a copy of the game for your family members who have been using it via Steam Family Sharing — all of their achievements and progress should properly carry over in that case. If you haven't yet picked up one of the greatest new game releases of 2020, you can buy Fall Guys for PC via Steam or on PS4 via the PlayStation Store at the price of $19.99 or your regional equivalent.
What do you think of Fall Guys Steam Family Sharing being disabled? Did you frequently use this feature to allow friends to play your games? Let us know in the comments below!
