While there have been plenty of reports of Microsoft looking into ways to further expand on its Game Pass offerings, it looks like the company might have completely cancelled its plans to offer a family plan for the subscription service. According to Windows Central’s Jez Corden, the Game Pass family plan, which was being tested in a few regions like Ireland and Colombia, will not be seeing any expansion to more regions, or even a return to where it was initially tested.
Unfortunately, the decision may have ultimately been cancelled due to objections from XBOX’s partners. According to Corden, Electronic Arts was the main culprit here, and that it “hated” the idea of a family plan for Game Pass. The plan itself would have given up to four users the ability to share a Game Pass subscription.
Corden has noted that the decision to cancel the family plan “wasn’t actually Microsoft’s fault.” He went on to say that, since EA’s presence on Game Pass has been the “bare minimum” on PC, and since it doesn’t release many games these days anyway, he wouldn’t mind seeing the company removed from the subscription service if it means getting things like a family plan.
“I was told EA, who is a long-term contractee within the Xbox Game Pass ecosystem, fully hated the idea,” wrote Corden. “It sucks because EA does the absolute bare minimum with its Game Pass involvement, refusing to put Xbox PC native versions with Play Anywhere or Xbox achievements out.”
“If the above is indeed true, I would like to see EA get kicked out of the Xbox Game Pass ecosystem in exchange for a revival of the Xbox Game Pass Family Plan, personally. EA barely releases games anymore anyway. EA shouldn’t be allowed to hold back Xbox customers, given how anemic its contributions have been.”
Interestingly, a family plan for Game Pass is among the top-5 most requested features that XBOX players have been asking for since the launch of the company’s new Player Voice feedback system. Other player requests include exclusive games, a renewed focus on backwards compatibility, fully free online multiplayer, and a separation of Achievements for base games and their DLCs.
A report from last month had indicated that the company is still trying some new things with the service, and is even toying with the idea of introducing a “pick your own plan” system that would give subscribers more options for the games and services they would actually want.
“A sort of ‘pick your own plan’ formula for Xbox Game Pass is on the cards, essentially, where users can effectively decide what packages of content they want to see as part of their plan,” wrote Corden last month. “Microsoft has leaked ‘Duet’ and ‘Triton’ codenames for Xbox Game Pass via its back-end APIs recently, suggesting that packages of services are in the plan’s future. Don’t want Xbox Cloud Gaming? Remove it and lower the price. No need for Fortnite Crew? Ditch it and add day one Xbox games. Perhaps you can roll in World of Warcraft or Minecraft Realms subscriptions instead, or even other benefits like Netflix, per rumors, or the long-awaited Xbox Game Pass Family Plan.”
