Rumors of an Xbox Game Pass Family Plan have been floating around for a while. Now, a new report indicates that it could be revealed before the end of this year.
Xbox Game Pass is a game subscription service from Microsoft that's a pretty solid deal for gamers and developers alike. The benefit of getting day-one access to first-party game releases is clear: more than 25 million people have grabbed memberships to date. Now, it looks like a new "Family Plan" that allows access to multiple devices simultaneously may be arriving this year.
What We Know About the Xbox Game Pass Family Plan
According to Windows Central (via Reddit), its sources have said that an Xbox Game Pass Family Plan has been in the works behind the scenes for some time now. Now, it could arrive before the end of 2022.
One of the many issues with this endeavor is figuring out just how royalties will be distributed to developers whose games participate in this new system. In addition, there were some licensing concerns with third-party publishers. Now, it looks like those details might have finally been hammered out.
The reported Xbox Game Pass Family Plan should give access for five players to the entire library of games. Naturally, it would be cheaper than purchasing five distinct Xbox Game Pass memberships. This would make use of Microsoft's Family Account" system that is already being used for Office 365. In short, these five accounts would be able to get Xbox Game Pass benefits through a single subscription managed by one master account.
While this certainly sounds enticing, there are still a lot of details that are up in the air. Will there be a split between Xbox Game Pass PC, Console, and Ultimate as we see with the single-person memberships? What will the pricing be? We'll have to wait to find out, but it does sound like a pretty good deal. For now, you can get started with Xbox Game Pass at the price of just $1 for your first month (and $14.99/month after that).