Xbox Game Pass ‘Friends & Family’ tier could allow subscription sharing

The upcoming Xbox Game Pass family subscription could be extended to friends, as well.
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Xbox Game Pass is already a solid subscription service, but it could be on the cusp of becoming even better. A new branding leak, per Aggiornamenti Lumia, has potentially revealed that Xbox could be extending its ‘family subscription’ plans to include friends in the deal. This means current subscribers would be able to share their subscription with anyone they choose.

While details are not currently available, testing of a new family plan is currently underway in Ireland and Colombia. This reportedly allows subscribers to share their benefits (including the XGP library) with up to four other users within their family, for the price of €21.99 (AU $32) per month.

The only known restriction, as of writing, is that the other users need to be within your country.

Read: The best indie adventure games on Xbox Game Pass

While originally launched for families only, it does not appear the service will be restricted to single households only. Leaker Aggiornamenti Lumia reportedly discovered official branding labelling this platform Xbox Game Pass ‘Friends & Family’ – indicating it will be open for anyone who wants to share a subscription.

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Should this service operate as simply as adding new users to your subscription, it could create significant cost savings. With benefits able to be shared across five users (the main subscriber, and up to four others) the cost of the service could be split between five people every month. That works out to around AU $6.50 per month, per person.

At this stage, it’s important to mention that testing is still currently underway in select markets, and nothing is set in stone yet – but with Microsoft seemingly acknowledging that a ‘family subscription’ may extend to others outside the immediate household, groups of friends could certainly benefit.

While Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family has yet to launch officially, we do know that it’s planned as an extension of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate with all the same benefits, including access to Xbox Live, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and the entire Game Pass library.

Stay tuned for more details about this upcoming service, including when you can expect it to launch in your region.

Leah J. Williams is a gaming and entertainment journalist who's spent years writing about the games industry, her love for The Sims 2 on Nintendo DS and every piece of weird history she knows. You can find her tweeting @legenette most days.