Cast your mind all the way back to late 2020, and you may remember Xbox boss Phil Spencer revealing that he wanted to create a 'Family Plan' for Xbox Game Pass, targeted at "multiple family members with consoles".
Now, Windows Central is reporting that Microsoft is indeed going ahead with a Family Plan, and it could be set to launch sometime later this year. The belief is that the Family Plan will allow "access for five players for games across the entire library", with the subscription being managed by a central account holder, similar to how Netflix does it.
Some of the details still aren't known yet by Windows Central, such as whether the deal will be exclusive to Game Pass Ultimate, although in terms of pricing it's expected to be "far cheaper than paying for several separate accounts".
Hopefully we'll get some official news about this soon, as we've been eager for a Family Plan to be implemented for some time now. On paper, it should prove to be a winning solution for families with multiple Xbox consoles.
Happy about this? Let us know down in the comments section below.
[source windowscentral.com]
Comments 18
So something similar to how the family NSO plan for nintendo switch works
Hope that it's no higher than $50 a month.
If this works the way the NSO does, I'm down with finding 4 people to split the cost with.
I thought they already had this. I am able to access my Gamepass on both my Series X and on my Series S.
@tasuki I Think they mean access even the same games at the same time. If the pice is right I’d buy it.
@Tasuki Thats gameshare with yourself and is limited to your "home" xbox and any xbox you're signed into. The "home" Xbox then allows anyone on that Xbox to play using your subscription
With a family plan, depending on number of users in the plan - this would allow for say 4 people to all have access to the Gamepass library, all playing on their own Gamertags, their own console etc
EDIT: so at the minute, the Gamepass subscriber can play on any Xbox and any "family" members can play on the "home" xbox. Therefore it's limited right now to 2 people simultaneously playing. In a nutshell, this would allow more than 2 at the same time on multiple consoles
I hope this doesn’t take away from anyone signed in to your HOME Xbox can play all your games be it purchased or Game Pass and have CLOUD saves.
Soz I’m always a little sceptical 🤨
@Gr81 You can currently play the same game at the same time etc. But it's limited to 2 players and the non-subscriber must be on the Xbox assigned as the "home" xbox with the subscriber account on a 2nd console
Actually it doesn’t even have to be your HOME Xbox as long as you are signed in, others can sign in on the same Xbox and play your games purchased or game pass and get CLOUD saves.
About time we had a family plan
Hell yeah. A family plan is really needed.
If they drop Gold, and price this at less than twice the price (because if it's twice the price or more it's actually not much better than buying two subs and game sharing) then this will be a massive win for the XGP vs PSN.
I'm happy with my (one) Series S, but if the monthly rate for a Family Game Pass subscription isn't too high I'd consider getting a second console just for the multiplayer games that don't support local play. But honestly even just double the price of (individual) Game Pass Ultimate would be enough to deter me. I imagine a lot of families are in the same boat, so it will be interesting to see what they offer.
One year game pass ultimate for $90 I could get behind. Anymore that I'm out.
@Tasuki You can only sign on to one console at a time. The family plan will allow 5 consoles to be online all at the same time.
@Tasuki You are possibly referring to the current main console and secondary console permissions, that’s currently allowing you to share your XBOX Live Account and/or GamePass Accounts to the current maximum of 2 XBOX consoles, if I’m not mistaken.
But having a family plan, plus an increase of the possible XBOX consoles that everyone else can share their XBOX Live Account and/or GamePass Account access online to more than 2 consoles at any given time (for a more affordable price than if you purchase each XBOX Live and/or GamePass Accounts separately), is definitely something that could finally allow me to sign-up to a monthly subscription to GamePass (for everyone in the family plan to play, share and enjoy).
oh absolutely. you make this like 100-120 a year for game pass ult and i'm sold.
I hope the price is good, I'll search for a 4 friends with xbox for this plan 😃
@Royalblues Yup, as customer our job is to search for a best deals for us, right now gamepass is the best subs compared to others.
@Savage_Joe $50 is way too high. If we compare to NSO. The individual annual membership is $20, where the family membership is $35. That's an increase of 75%.
With game pass being $15 monthly, a 75% increase would put it at $26 - 27ish per month. I'm thinking $25 might be the sweet spot honestly.
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