It was just last month that Sony released the revamped PlayStation Plus. Now Microsoft has unveiled a brand-new feature for Xbox Game Pass.
In an official Xbox Wire post, Microsoft confirmed plans to preview the feature for Xbox Insiders in Ireland and Colombia.
The new functionality will allow “multiple people to share Game Pass Ultimate benefits.” The blog explains:
“This makes it even easier to play the best Game Pass games with friends and family across console, PC, and cloud by enabling you to add up to four people to your subscription, all with their own unique access to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate games, content, and benefits.”
It’s currently unclear when or if the feature will be rolled out further than Colombia and Ireland. But it certainly sounds like a more cost-effective way to use Xbox Game Pass, especially if you have friends and family who play.
Xbox Game Pass – How To Become Xbox Insider
In order to check out the Xbox Game Pass ‘family plan’, you must be an Xbox Insider.
As the blog explains, if you want to become an Insider “you need to purchase the “Xbox Game Pass – Insider Preview” Game Pass plan in the Microsoft Store.”
Microsoft has noted a number of important points to know about the preview. Firstly, anyone you share your membership with doesn’t have to be an Xbox Insider themselves. However, they do need to live in the same territory as you – Ireland or Colombia.
Additionally, the company has explained how joining the Game Pass – Insider Preview will impact your existing Game Pass subscription.
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.
As you may have deduced from this, it appears the new ‘family plan’ will be more expensive than current Game Pass subscriptions.
Known Issues With Preview
Microsoft has also shared a number of known issues with the new feature. While they don’t appear to be anything major, it’s clear the ‘family plan’ is still in testing.
Potential problems include:
“- Invited members with an existing subscription may encounter an error when accepting an invite.
– Attempts to upgrade twice within 24 hours will be blocked.
– Microsoft account family members will not receive an email when automatically added to a group.
– 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.
– Error while trying to purchase Xbox Game Pass – Insider Preview plan.
– 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.”
While there’s certainly more we’d like to know about the feature, it’s an exciting sign of things to come for Game Pass. Here’s hoping that more territories can check it out soon!
Do you like the sound of this new feature? Let us know in the comment section below and don’t forget to check out our other gaming articles…
