I’m a big fan and regular user of Games Pass. I work around some multi-user issues by having my own Games Pass Ultimate on my Xbox Series X, allowing me to also use it on my main PC and my mobile phone, which is great. My kids have their own subscription too, one has a PC, the other an Xbox, and so far that works out pretty great too. However, I long ago heard a rumour of Games Pass Family Plan, and it looks like it’s finally here, well, not here, but it’s in Ireland and Colombia!
Game Pass Family Plan
The new plan will allow multiple family members to share the same subscription. What’s cooler is that they don’t have to be in the same home to use it, and they can use their own unique logins too. As it stands right now, I need my master account on all the devices, but that’s going to change.
What’s great is that this includes all the benefits too. It is in trial though, so details like pricing, regions, features, and packages are little still being hammered out and subject to change. Of course, it will cost more than one package, but early indications are it’ll be around $25 for four family members getting Ultimate, which covers, PC, Console and Mobile.
Things to know about this preview:
- The people you share your membership with do not have to be Insiders but must reside in the same country as you. Enrollment is limited and will remain open while the offer is available.
- Joining the Game Pass – Insider Preview will convert the time remaining on your membership to time in the new plan, based upon the monetary value of the old membership. For example, a full month of Ultimate will be converted to 18 days of membership for this plan. This way you won’t lose any of the remaining value on your existing subscription upon conversion. Conversion is final, and users must wait for their new membership to expire before returning to a previous membership.
- Conversion is not available for invited group members. Before joining a group, a group member can cancel their existing subscription or wait for it to expire. If they do not have a Microsoft account, invited friends and family will have to create a new Microsoft account and sign in with it to participate.
- Members with Xbox All Access won’t be able to participate in this preview.
- In Colombia, parts of the copy for the preview have not been localized and might be displayed in English.
Known issues:
- Invited members with an existing subscription may encounter an error when accepting an invite. We’re working on enabling these members to cancel immediately to accept the invitation.
- Attempts to upgrade twice within 24 hours will be blocked. For example, upgrading from Xbox Live Gold to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will work, but attempts to then upgrade from Ultimate to Xbox Game Pass – Insider Preview will be blocked for 24 hours. There is currently a generic error code shown when this is attempted.
- Microsoft account family members will not receive an email when automatically added to a group. Primary account holders can share benefits with Microsoft account family members automatically. We’re working on sending a confirmation email, and family members do not need to explicitly accept an invite to get access.
- A Primary account holder may see a “Something went wrong” error when trying to share directly to two or more Microsoft account family members at once after purchase. Please wait a short time and try again. Alternatively, try sharing via email or link.
- Error while trying to purchase Xbox Game Pass – Insider Preview plan. If you’re blocked from purchase with this error code: PEX-CatalogAvailabilityDataNotFound, please report a problem following the steps outlined in the Insider subreddit here. You may be able to work around this by restarting the Microsoft Store and trying to purchase again.
- Subscription sharing “Get help” link on account.microsoft.com links to the support.xbox.com home page instead of a specific support article with sharing help.
- Invitation and group management related emails are currently only in English. We are working on additional languages for these emails.
