Monday, August 8th 2022

Microsoft Launches Xbox Game Pass Family Plan Trial in Ireland & Colombia

Press Release by
Uskompuf
 Discuss (14 Comments)
We're always looking for ways to deliver experiences that offer players more choice and value in how they discover and experience games with their community. Starting today in Colombia and Ireland, Xbox Insiders can begin to preview a plan that allows multiple people to share Game Pass Ultimate benefits.

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. To participate in the preview, you need to purchase the "Xbox Game Pass - Insider Preview" Game Pass plan in the Microsoft Store.
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.
Source: Microsoft

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14 Comments on Microsoft Launches Xbox Game Pass Family Plan Trial in Ireland & Colombia

#1
bobsled
This is gonna go bonkers I reckon. I’ll be signing up when the stacked 36 months expires
Posted on Reply
#2
DeathtoGnomes
This will be somewhat popular until the
Uskompufenabling you to add up to four people to your subscription
so 5 people per subscription. How did that work out for Netflix?

one more and you'd have a full group in Everquest.:D
Posted on Reply
#3
Bomby569
That wont last just like Netflix, this is a way to get people hooked into the service, get critical numbers while losing money. No way they can make money like this. Or they found a way to harvest profitable data or got your blood or something.

Company shenanigans.
Posted on Reply
#4
_JP_
Unlike Netflix, Microsoft already has a price plan for single and 5-user for Office and they are different. TBH, I don't see this hitting general release before those pricing plans, which should be anything between 80% to 90% more of the current, single-user, subscription.
Posted on Reply
#5
bobsled
Bomby569That wont last just like Netflix, this is a way to get people hooked into the service, get critical numbers while losing money. No way they can make money like this. Or they found a way to harvest profitable data or got your blood or something.

Company shenanigans.
Saying that, a growing number of titles on the platform are inherently owned by Microsoft, so it costs them far less on balance sheets.

If Microsoft can get more cash per household thanks to individual accounts belonging to a subscription vs true account sharing, it means a win.
Posted on Reply
#6
Bomby569
bobsledSaying that, a growing number of titles on the platform are inherently owned by Microsoft, so it costs them far less on balance sheets.
True, but the growing is still a small portion. You make a good point, still i don't see this being profitable in any way. It's a tool to get to some place not the destination. They will eventually change this to a profitable model, if they already haven't done that like the data thing or something more obscure.

MS already admited they weren't making money with GP as it was, let alone like this.
Posted on Reply
#7
zlobby
I think Alabama would be a good market for this.
Posted on Reply
#9
trsttte
So they saw the problems netflix and spotify had for the longest time with their "family" sharing schemes not being profitable and they went "yeah we want a piece of that" !?
Bomby569That wont last just like Netflix, this is a way to get people hooked into the service, get critical numbers while losing money. No way they can make money like this. Or they found a way to harvest profitable data or got your blood or something.

Company shenanigans.
Shenanigans for sure but it's not that simple to cut back on this programs after giving making them available. Just as they'll get a massive influx of users with it they must know it won't be sustainable and the moment they try to walk it back they'll get a similar wave out - i'd argue the slow down and growth reversion will be more damaging than whatever they'll get from a current inrush of users.

This all seems shortsighted but hey, cheaper prices for us for a while at least i guess :D
Posted on Reply
#10
Durvelle27
Why Ireland and not the US. I've been needing this for years now. I'm paying for 3 Gampass subscriptions between 5 Xboxs
Posted on Reply
#11
trsttte
Durvelle27Why Ireland and not the US. I've been needing this for years now. I'm paying for 3 Gampass subscriptions between 5 Xboxs
They're still trying out the model and seeing how well it's received and how it performs with the user base. It's normal to launch these kind of pricing/feature into smaller markets first to test the waters. Easier to control and walk back if necessary without much backlash.
Posted on Reply
#12
LuxZg
What I really like is the "open door" approach, where you're specifically free to add friends, not just household members. The "same country" clause is fine for almost everyone. Now I just wish they finally open up to Croatia ;-( I would've been on PC pass for a while now if only it was available.
Posted on Reply
#13
Bones
zlobbyI think Alabama would be a good market for this.
I don't.
Posted on Reply
#14
Zareek
trsttteSo they saw the problems netflix and spotify had for the longest time with their "family" sharing schemes not being profitable and they went "yeah we want a piece of that" !?



Shenanigans for sure but it's not that simple to cut back on this programs after giving making them available. Just as they'll get a massive influx of users with it they must know it won't be sustainable and the moment they try to walk it back they'll get a similar wave out - i'd argue the slow down and growth reversion will be more damaging than whatever they'll get from a current inrush of users.

This all seems shortsighted but hey, cheaper prices for us for a while at least i guess :D
I dunno, I bought the Game Pass Ultimate with Series X deal they had then paid it off early. When I first got it, I played a lot but I started playing some games on my PC again, and now I turn it on once or twice a month. I have used the PC part of Game Pass a bit too but still I doubt they are losing money on my subscription. I really hope this sort of model is the future for gaming. It makes way more sense. I very rarely go back and play a game I already finished.
Posted on Reply
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