After a wave of rumors and leaks, Xbox has finally revealed some details about its Game Pass account sharing plan. Called Game Pass friends and family, it is not yet available in the US. But when (or if) it eventually becomes available outside of the two countries Microsoft is testing it in, it sure sounds like it’s going to be a lot.
At the moment, Game Pass is already one of the best deals in gaming. For $10 a month, you get access to a rotating library of hundreds of games on Xbox or PC. For $15 per month, you can sign up for the higher tier: Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which offers combined access to the Xbox and PC libraries, Bundles in EA Play’s game library (similar games from the sports game publisher on-demand service) and offers the possibility to stream more than 100 games. Game Pass Friends and Family is pretty much the Ultimate tier, except you can share an account between five people, with one designated as the primary account holder.
Game Pass Friends and Family is currently in a testing phase in Colombia and the Republic of Ireland, where it costs COP 49,000 or $21.99 per month. (As of this writing, these fees are $10.92, or $21.99 in US currency.) Xbox Game Pass Ultimate currently costs 29,000 COP in Colombia and $12.99 in Ireland.
Anyone who has signed up for Game Pass will see months from existing subscriptions converted to split plan months. If you are currently signed up for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, each remaining month becomes 18 days of Game Pass Friends and Family. Those who signed up for the piecemeal tiers will see their subscriptions convert to 12 days of Game Pass Friends and Family.
On paper, assuming Microsoft follows a similar pricing scheme around the world, Game Pass Friends and Family is worth considering. Assuming the company goes with the higher figure, which is currently around $22 in Ireland, that’s still a hell of a deal. Get four friends on board, and you all pay less than $5 for everything you would otherwise get for three times that cost. (It’s also a smart way for Microsoft to increase Game Pass subscribers, huh missed recent targets.)
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However, there are some limitations. If you are the account holder, you can only have four other people on an account at any given time and can only share with eight individual accounts over the course of a calendar year. And it’s region-locked: the main account holder can only add members who live in the same country or region.
It’s unclear if there are any specific plans to bring Game Pass Friends and Family to regions outside of the two regions where Microsoft is currently testing the plan, or what the potential timeline would be. (Microsoft officials did not respond to a request for comment in time for the release.) But Microsoft has released an encyclopedic FAQ on Xbox’s US support page, suggesting that American players are at least included. It notes that “future countries could be added over the next few months.”
