Subscription sharing is something some of the media streaming giants like Netflix have done in the past. A more popular version of it, family sharing or family plans, is also available for some streaming platforms like Apple TV. Now, we might just see it coming to the gaming industry as well.
Microsoft has announced that Xbox Insiders in Colombia and Ireland can begin to preview a plan that allows multiple people to share Game Pass Ultimate benefits. Up to four different people can enjoy the shared benefits with their own unique access to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate games, content, and benefits.
The news came through an official Xbox blog post stating that insiders in Ireland and Columbia can invite people to their plans starting today and can even invite those who aren’t insiders. However, they need to be in the same country as you, so you can’t add any overseas buddies for now.
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.
Xbox
How to join the preview?
To participate in the preview, you must purchase the “Xbox Game Pass – Insider Preview” Game Pass plan in the Microsoft Store. For existing membership users, 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, this plan will convert a whole month of Ultimate to 18 days of membership. This way, you won’t lose any of the remaining value on your existing subscription upon conversion.
Conversion is not available for invited group members, hence invitees must 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.
Some of the issues with the plan
Members with Xbox All Access won’t be able to participate in this preview, so they will have to wait till the plan is available for them. Also, an error occurs when an existing subscription member accepts an invite.
You can not upgrade twice on the same day. 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.
If you were too excited to try this out and rushed to purchase the plan, but the error code” PEX-CatalogAvailabilityDataNotFound” crushed your hopes, please report a problem following the steps outlined in the Insider subreddit here.
Microsoft will probably be working on these issues, but still, you might want to keep in mind that there are issues that you can encounter as this plan is still for preview. This plan will be a little more expensive than the Ultimate version, but as mentioned before, the remaining days will be appropriately converted into the new plan.
Xbox hasn’t revealed when the test will end or how long it will be before the new subscription plan comes to larger territories like the UK or the US, but we can expect it to arrive later this year.
About Xbox Game Pass
Xbox Game Pass is a video game subscription service offered by Microsoft. It is available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Android and iOS via xCloud.
Xbox Game Pass grants users access to a rotating catalog of games from a range of publishers and other premium services, including Xbox Live Gold and EA Play, for a single monthly subscription price.
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