Xbox Testing New Game Pass Ultimate Offering Allowing People to Share Benefits - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 04 August 2022 / 2,538 Views
Microsoft announced it is has begun testing a new Xbox Game Pass offering for Xbox Insiders in Colombia and Ireland.
The new offering lets someone to purchase the "Xbox Game Pass – Insider Preview" Game Pass plan in the Microsoft Store and will allow them to share their Game Pass Ultimate benefits by adding up to four people to their subscription. All the people added will have unique access to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate games, content, and benefits.
Read details on the new Xbox Game Pass offering via Xbox Wire below:
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.
Other resources:
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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This is something I'm really looking forward... 5 Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions cost are piling up quickly when you have 4 kids ;-)
You are apparently exactly who this was designed for haha
I have the same issue. 2 kids 3 xbox's and 1 account.
Glad MS will save you some bucks
We always had just one Xbox. That way, you only have to buy Gold/Game Pass once, and everyone gets to play.
cdkeys com website is selling cheap gold atm 6 months for £12.99 if want to do the convert trick :) mines got a year left or i would stock up has to run out for it to work
So is this similar to like the family plan for the Switch?
Weren't people already sharing but not "legally"?
I do not know anyone doing that. It would be also weird, all saves, achievements, etc and have to use the same Microsoft account; just very unpractical.
While they are probably people doing that anyway it is probably a very small minority because it would inconvenient as hell, I'm not sure where you are getting that "this is a thing" like people are doing that in general.
My cousin shares it with me and a bunch of our friends. I know others that do it too. It's simple, if you're in the middle of playing a game let them all know and get others to save a different file, this also doesn't affect achievements. Also there's many games on GP, not like we're all logging in to just play one game. Just like how people share Netflix account.
Ohh look at the negative thumbs im starting to get. Either these people are against sharing accounts (so they must also be shaming on those that share Netflix, Disney+ etc..), or huge MS fanboys, or just completely oblivious that sharing account is still a thing since Xbox360/PS3 days lol
Don't know about the negative thumbs (I did not). But if you say you are sharing I believe you :) I just find it way less relevant to share it because you need to share your Microsoft account; so while some are sharing (like you); I still believe it is really not a lot of people.
I cannot even imagine having someone else logging with my Microsoft account on another PC/Xbox. That would be really an issue for me anyway
Well my cousin is the one that's sharing, I have his info but I never used it cause I personally dont care for GP, and he shares with others. Most of the time when I play on GP its when I'm over at his place. I understand the situation that sharing isn't for everyone, especially because majority that creates accounts likes to keep things personal and ties them into their personal email. I never said it was relevant but sharing accounts does happen that's all.
In Brazil it is common to have people selling games with accounts (let's say a single game on an account) which is sold to either multiple people very cheap, like a rental, or few people so it is like 50% of original price of the game. And there are sales of GP access as well. Some people only want to play for cheap and don't care about the rest.
Maybe people are doing it in a way of disagreeing with the method because it's not really safe or smart to do. Also, not very common practice. I use one Xbox and account with GP with multiple accounts that can play when I'm not. But to use features like Xcloud, and playing on multiple devices, you need another account paying for Game Pass. This will fix that. It a much safer and easier method than what your cousin does.
I can assure you, in countries with less income account sharing is very common, not sure in USA and sure for a dedicated player like you it doesn't make sense (I don't share anymore as well, in the past I let some friends enjoy my PS+ and digital games, but it was to much hassle).
well maybe in those countries; I do not know. But for sure I do not know any of my friends that does that. I'm not sure to which extend this is really a big thing tho (compared to Netflix, etc.) cause really you have to share your Microsoft account as a whole; so I think it is rarer.
And sure there is a risk when you do this type of stuff.
