Interested in learning what’s next for the gaming industry? Join gaming executives to discuss emerging parts of the industry this October at GamesBeat Summit Next. Register today.
Following a leak earlier this week, Microsoft has officially revealed its Friends & Family plan for Xbox Game Pass. It’s an upgrade on existing plans which allows users to share a single Game Pass plan for multiple accounts and consoles.
The new plan will allow the primary account holder — the one who pays the bill — to add up to four other players to their account. The only restriction is that the other users need to be within the same country. The friends and family can access and play games on their own consoles. Up to now, the only way to allow other users access to their plan is if they were signed in on their own consoles.
The Friends & Family tier is currently testing in Ireland and Colombia for €21.99 and 49,900 COP. While users can have up to four others within the group at any given time, they can invite up to eight users. Users can also join up to two different groups per year.
The one confusing part of the new tier is the conversion rates. In the plan’s FAQ, Microsoft has a table that shows how a “regular” Game Pass plan will convert into days of Friends & Family if the subscription is upgraded. For example, if a subscriber has paid for 30 days of Game Pass Ultimate, post-upgrade they’ll have 18 days of Friends & Family.
