The wildly popular Xbox Game Pass service has been one of the biggest weapons in Microsoft's gaming arsenal in recent years, and it is no secret as to why. Offering a huge selection of games for a reasonable price, the monthly service commands a huge audience of paying customers.
Despite already being known for the value it offers, the Xbox Game Pass service is set to become even more well-priced in the near future. With the introduction of family plan subscriptions that allow several people to fall under a single payment package, the Xbox Game Pass may further cement itself as one of the most popular subscription services in the industry.
The Success Of the Xbox Game Pass Service
Originally launching all the way back in 2017, the Game Pass service has slowly but surely cultivated a huge array of titles and perks that fans can enjoy. Boasting over 300 titles, Xbox Game Pass has its own separate selection of games for PC players while additionally boasting the increasingly popular benefit of Cloud Gaming.
With Xbox Game Pass having over 30 million monthly subscribers in 2021, the sheer level of success that the service has garnered for Microsoft practically speaks for itself. More recently, aided by the contemporary spate of very high-profile studio acquisitions that Microsoft has been making, the Game Pass service has been adding popular titles to its roster as they release, which are known as "day one" titles.
Other perks of the Xbox Game Pass service include membership to EA Play, Xbox Live Gold, and a slew of in-game benefits for an array of Game Pass titles. Despite this high level of pre-existing success, Xbox Game Pass is looking to reach its next level of value with the plans to introduce family subscriptions to the service.
Xbox Game Pass Family Plans
The concept of sharing a subscription-based service with a small group of friends or family members is not a new idea, with it being one of the core pillars of successful streaming services such as Netflix. That being said, family plans are a relative oddity within the context of video game subscription services. Nintendo famously has a family plan for Nintendo Switch Online which allows up to eight accounts to fall under one payment, but other competitors such as PlayStation Plus have no such option.
With the anticipated introduction of family plans, Game Pass will arguably be the highest value and most unique gaming subscription service, possessing the same level of game selection as PlayStation Plus and the familial accessibility of Nintendo Switch Online simultaneously. Rumors surrounding a family plan for Xbox Game Pass began circulating as early as March, and have recently entered the next level of relevancy within the gaming discourse. Xbox's take on family plans will reportedly see up to five players enjoying Game Pass under a single payment, greatly improving the value when compared to five individual subscriptions.
Via the Xbox Insider program, family plan subscriptions for Xbox Game Pass are currently being tested exclusively in Ireland and Colombia, with Microsoft clearly being in the early stages of gauging how popular this form of subscription could be amongst fans. With the testing regions for the family plan being more than likely to expand as time goes on, players may have the ability to try the subscription for themselves very soon. Considering the already longstanding and sizable consumer base that the service already possesses, as well as the increasingly attractive selection of titles that it boasts, it seems likely that a family plan subscription tier for Xbox Game Pass will be wildly successful.