Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, confirmed that Microsoft‘s monthly subscription service could be getting a family plan shortly.

The Xbox Game Pass (which we will call Game Pass, as that’s a shorter term for the service, plus it has non-Microsoft content on it, such as EA Play, which has been delayed to 2021 on PC, as we have recently discussed it) quickly got a respectable subscription base, and the Redmond-based company rewards it with regular updates (we previously talked about the two big December additions to the service; Bethesda’s games started to join Game Pass, which is reasonable, seeing how Microsoft now owns them…).

Microsoft openly wants Game Pass to become the Netflix of video gaming, where not only streaming is possible (via xCloud), but we can also download the games to play them locally. Spencer’s tweet confirms that the service will go towards a family model, too: „It’s something we’d like to do. There is Home console feature for one console household but for multiple family members with consoles a family plan would help. Appreciate the feedback.”

We can expect two plans for families. The base Xbox Game Pass (which will likely be dubbed Xbox Family Pass for the family plan…?) is joined by the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (Xbox Family Pass Ultimate?), and the latter allows you to stream games to iOS and PC devices from the spring of 2021 (we discussed it before – the iOS solution will be browser-based to avoid Apple’s App Store altogether), and until then, streaming is possible via Android devices. (It has been available for a while.)

Don’t expect further details about the subject this year. Microsoft has already gone home, so we’ll probably get an announcement of the family solution in 2021.

Source: WCCFTech