UPDATE: Unfortunately, this turned out to be a mistake by the user who posted the image. As revealed on Resetera, they accidentally left their account set to New Zealand after shifting it to play Resident Evil 4. The service is already available in New Zealand and the price is actually in New Zealand Dollar, translates into US$25 at the current exchange rate.
It appears that Microsoft may be rolling out its Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family service in the United States.
According to a report and screenshot posted by Twitter user @Jawmuncher the service is now available only via ad on the dashboard, promising the following benefits for a monthly fee of $39.95. It's worth mentioning that this is the Ultimate service, which includes, Xbox Live Gold required to play online, Cloud gaming, and the basic Xbox Game Pass offer.Â
- Ultimate benefits shared among 5 friends and family
- Include friends and family outside your household
- Enjoy hundreds of games together including new releases on day one
- Each account gets their own history, achievements, gamertag and saves
- Play at the same time on console, PC & cloud
- With games added all the time, there's always something new for everyoneÂ
The service has been available for a while in smaller markets, including Colombia, Chile, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, South Africa, and Sweden. At the moment, we don't know when the official announcement will be made or when it'll be extended to additional markets. Yet, a launch on Xbox's biggest market certainly shows that Microsoft is ready to widen the availability of this kind of tier to a much larger slice of its base.
For the sake of comparison, a single user pays $14.99 for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. This means that five users banding together for a Friend & Family subscription save approximately $35 a month, which is certainly not insignificant.Â
