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Windows Central Exclusive: Microsoft is moving ahead with an Xbox Game Pass Family Plan

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
This is fucking incredible news! Holy shit microsoft you mad bastards! I love it.
I have three Xboxes in my house, oh and three gaming pcs. I had mine with Xbox live ultimate and my sons who has his Xbox set as my home Xbox so he can play my games. I then had to buy game pass ultimate again for him and did the three year trick so he could use on his pc and set my daughters series s as his home Xbox to share his game pass ultimate.

this will mean we just have one account of game pass ultimate right? Mega!
 
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Schmick

Member
I wonder how much its going to cost. Why cant we get all the information at once for announcements like this.
 
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jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
I have a feeling they'll put restrictions on that.

Otherwise you're potentially looking at 10 people using a single GP subscription. That'll be way too much.
Amazon does this pretty smartly and I suspect most places will follow suit eventually.

When you sign up for the Prime family subscription, it puts that payment method as the "family" payment method. Anyone you share your account with then has access to use that "family" payment method to buy things. Therefore, you really only want to give it to people you would trust with your wallet.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Who knows what the family plan details are but just for info for you guys who have never done home sharing, it works this way:

1. You and a buddy put each other's profiles on each console and do the setting about making them primary console (I forget but something like that)
2. When doing that, now you share each others DIGITAL game downloads and sub plans (Gold and GP are both allowed)

I don't know if shit like mtx is a shared purchase. Probably not.

But at least for digital games and sub plans, those are both accessible. So get one guy to buy it, and both users get it.

You are only allowed to flip flop primary console access I think 3 times a year. So they are smart enough to not let you share your digital stuff to a different friend every week.

You never know. Maybe a Family Plan is really the same as Home Sharing, but instead of 1 other console to share with, they'll allow you 5 people for a fee and only GP sharing allowed.
 
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reinking

Gold Member
They ain't going to do it but

Just to flame the fanboys, imagine if they counted every family member as a subscribers.
What if we fan the flames the other way and say they are going to take away game sharing for those not on your family plan?


I think this is great news. I only have one request from media/people though. Can we stop saying "The Netflix of. .?" I'm sure most people know how subscription services work.
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Honestly so far it hasn't been an issue just using one account between me and my kids. But if it was only a slight increase it might be worth it to get us all separated.
 

kingfey

Banned
Finally. I can share my account with my brother.
It makes no sense, for both of us to pay $25 separately.
 

nani17

are in a big trouble
Interesting to see how this works on PC but I like the idea
 
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KungFucius

King Snowflake
They should find a way to combine Office 365 and Gamepass Ultimate. Would be nice to have it all in one.
I was thinking the same. That is the only way I'd really pay for office. Otherwise it will be work PC for office and open source on personal PC to edit.
 

bender

What time is it?
Both my kids already have more than a year on their Game Pass accounts, and mine is topped up through 2025.

Something like this would have saved them a bunch of cash.

Make Microsoft Rewards and Game Pass Quests part of their daily chores and they can earn enough points monthly for a GPU sub. 35,000 Points for 3 months. Getting 12,000 points a month is pretty simple if you spend 5-10 minutes a day on Bing Searches, Daily Quizzes and the Game Pass Quests.
 
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jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Make Microsoft Rewards and Game Pass Quests part of their daily chores and they can earn enough points monthly for a GPU sub. 35,000 Points for 3 months. Getting 12,000 points a month is pretty simple if you spend 5-10 minutes a day on Bing Searches, Daily Quizzes and the Game Pass Quests.
Kids in their 20s / Daily Chores

Laugh Lol GIF
 

jorgejjvr

Gold Member
Orly, wat
Yep, you set up your buddy's as the primary console with your account. Then log out, they now login with their account, and you login with yours on your system. I pay for gamepass, but both me and my brother use it, at the same time even, we can even play online together. He has access to all of gamepass games and all games I own

I bought elder ring once, but we are both playing it
 
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The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
So I can share it between me and my wife through the console game share way, and then pay a lower fee for my kid to get into it as well?

Doesn't sound that bad.
 

VAVA Mk2

Member
I want a GPU and Microsoft 365 family plan bundle. They used to have something called a work and play bundle. Bring it back!
 

Topher

Gold Member
I still think this rumor of Live Gold going away is gone to come true
it make to much sense now with this family plan thing they might do it sooner


I doubt it. There are still far too many people on Xbox Live Gold. Forcing them to GPU would be a PR nightmare worse than when they tried to double the price.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I doubt it. There are still far too many people on Xbox Live Gold. Forcing them to GPU would be a PR nightmare worse than when they tried to double the price.
I dont think they'll mandate a GPU membership either. Especially since Sony still has a basic Essentials tier.

Unless MS wants to get generous with free MP for all, and GPU dumbs down from $180 to $120. And they hope the math works out long term where more people join the Xbox ecosystem and they make it back in the higher user count buying games and mtx covering lost rev from Gold and cheaper GPU.
 

Zannegan

Member
This was easily the best thing about Nintendo's online service. It's a great move for people with families or close friends who game.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
I really wish they would let me do the family share they discussed at the start of the Xbox one. It was the one great thing about their borked announcement. Make it like steam family sharing or something where my fam can play my purchased games. It’s a bit of a pain at the minute.
 

Topher

Gold Member
I dont think they'll mandate a GPU membership either. Especially since Sony still has a basic Essentials tier.

Unless MS wants to get generous with free MP for all, and GPU dumbs down from $180 to $120. And they hope the math works out long term where more people join the Xbox ecosystem and they make it back in the higher user count buying games and mtx covering lost rev from Gold and cheaper GPU.

MP for free would be the easiest but financially most painful option for Microsoft. Don't see that happening. I think you are right, though, that to make online a meaningful part of Game Pass it will require come restructuring. Doing so and somehow allowing current XLG to pay at the same level they have been paying will prove to be difficult, I think.
 
I know it's crazy but it would be cool of them if:

Live turns into Gamepass
Gamepass turns into GPUltimate
and GPUltimate becomes the Family Plan.

and the pricing for the tiers doesn't change.
 
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Hendrick's

If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
This seems like it would be the perfect time to roll in Gold since they will be adding a new tier for Family.

They will just have to bite the bullet and make online play free. Then they just drop the Games with Gold and make the $10 GP the entry point.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?



Targeting a Fall/Holiday release for this new plan going by insider chatter.
 
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Reactions: Isa

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly



Targeting a Fall/Holiday release for this new plan going by insider chatter.

Probably to coincide with a big series s push this holiday season. Could be a huge holiday for xbox but they need a wide variety of games, starfield hopefully but also some family friendly stuff.

Hopefully there's some games further along than we thought.
 

Lucian

Member
Understanding it needs to cost more than 1 GPU sub, this tier needs to cost less than 2 GPU subs or it won't be helpful to most real families (just game sharers).

• Families with 1 or 2 consoles don't need this because they can already share
• Families with 3 or 4 consoles can share 2 subs

I'll reserve judgment until I see price and how structured.
 
It's going to be hasrd for PS Plus to compete with that
lol, i dont think PS plus wants to compete with that. i for one will still choose PS+

xbox is just gathering the casual and hardcore gamers that like everything for cheap, in a way disrupting and getting them accustom to not paying for much. i think deals like this will not be good for games long term.

xbox right now is banking on the huge acquistions they made and names of huge games that will get gamers to bite early without actually putting quatitly games out first
 

CrustyBritches

Gold Member
When I leave my account logged into one of the kids consoles and try to play on my PC, it says I can’t play because the account is already in use. Am I missing something?
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
When I leave my account logged into one of the kids consoles and try to play on my PC, it says I can’t play because the account is already in use. Am I missing something?

Is the console set as the home Xbox ? I'm not sure about how that level of sharing works as I don't use it right now myself (which is why a proper family plan is enticing to me).
 

CrustyBritches

Gold Member
Is the console set as the home Xbox ? I'm not sure about how that level of sharing works as I don't use it right now myself (which is why a proper family plan is enticing to me).
No it’s set as their home console. My PC is set as my home. Admittedly, I don’t know what I’m doing. It seems weird that you could log in on 2 systems and play co-op or MP together on the same account.
 

Lucian

Member
No it’s set as their home console. My PC is set as my home. Admittedly, I don’t know what I’m doing. It seems weird that you could log in on 2 systems and play co-op or MP together on the same account.
The designated home console for an account gets all the benefits of Live/GPU without that account having to be signed in. It's not intuitive.

For example, Billy has Xbox 1 set as his home console, he can sign in to Xbox 2 and play with/against Sam who's playing on Xbox 1. If you have 2 kids each with an Xbox in their room, each should have their home console set as the one that is not on their room so they can share subscriptions and digital content. In this case, 1 GPU sub is all that's needed for both kids (unless you lose Internet access).
 

Topher

Gold Member
No it’s set as their home console. My PC is set as my home. Admittedly, I don’t know what I’m doing. It seems weird that you could log in on 2 systems and play co-op or MP together on the same account.

The other day I was comparing load times for Halo Infinite on PC vs XSX and I ran into the same thing. I could not launch the game on one while it was playing on the other.
 

Vognerful

Member
Probably to coincide with a big series s push this holiday season. Could be a huge holiday for xbox but they need a wide variety of games, starfield hopefully but also some family friendly stuff.

Hopefully there's some games further along than we thought.
Is there a possibility they announce a new model S these holidays?
 
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