Xbox Soft Launches Game Pass Friends and Family Subscription

In much of the world, you’re not able to try out the latest iteration of Xbox Game Pass. In Ireland and Colombia, however, gamers are getting a taste of a new approach Microsoft is taking to its subscription service with Xbox Game Pass Friends and Family. While this is only a soft launch in select regions to get a feel for how things will work, we’re able to see what the path is to releasing this tier worldwide. Let’s take some time to explore whether or not you’ll want to move up to this subscription option when it comes to your area.

Per the Irish version of the Xbox Wire blog, we know that the Xbox Game Pass Friends and Family tier will include up to five users in its accepted shared plan limit. That means you and four other people can all get access to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for a lower price than five individual subscriptions. The tier will run in Ireland and Colombia first for the price of €21.99 per month and COP$49,900 respectively.

Pricing for other parts of the world are not yet announced, but it stands to reason that you’ll also save money with this method if you have a few friends who subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate. In the U.S. for example, a month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate runs $14.99. If the family plan was something like $24.99, that would be a great deal.

If you have a Game Pass Ultimate subscription but decide to upgrade, Xbox provides this formula for conversion to the Friends and Family tier:

30 days of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is 18 days of Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family
30 days of Xbox Game Pass (Console) is 12 days of Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family
30 days of PC Game Pass is 12 days of Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family
30 days of Xbox Live Gold is 12 days of Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family
30 days of EA Play is 6 days of Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family

It’s only a matter of time before the U.S., UK, and the rest of Europe see this in their region-based markets. It’s another positive for Xbox in my eyes, seeing as you likely game in the Xbox ecosystem with a few people, you would be able to share this cost with and reap the rewards from this discount. Let us know if you would subscribe to this in the comments!