Lyra Martin Games 08.05.2022 04:Aug AM EDT

Microsoft is Testing an Xbox Game Pass Family Plan — Who Can Try It Right Now?

Xbox Insiders in two nations will be able to explore the benefits of Game Pass Ultimate, which lets users add up to four extra players.

Up to Four Individuals May Share Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Subscription

After months of rumors, Microsoft is testing an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate family bundle. Xbox Insiders in Colombia and Ireland may add up to four in-country friends to their membership. These folks can access Game Pass Ultimate's hundreds of console, PC, and cloud games.

According to Tyler Mittleider, a senior technical program manager at Microsoft, "Starting today in Colombia and Ireland, Xbox Insiders may start previewing a plan that enables several individuals to share Game Pass Ultimate advantages."

Allowing you to add up to four people to your membership, each with unique access to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate titles, content, and perks makes it even simpler to enjoy the finest Game Pass games with friends and family across console PC and cloud.

Xbox Game Pass - Insider Preview is available in both countries; however, membership is limited. Your remaining Game Pass subscription time will be based on its current value. The family deal includes 18 days of Game Pass Ultimate. If Microsoft introduced a family plan in the US, it would cost $25 per month or $5 per person.

Before changing plans, you must wait for your membership to expire. Additionally, everyone you wish to add to a family package must terminate their current Game Pass membership or wait until it expires. They may also open a new Microsoft account. It's important to note that Xbox All Access subscribers are ineligible.

Microsoft's Xbox business is built on Game Pass, so a family plan makes sense. Despite losing some customers in houses with multiple Game Pass subscriptions or among groups of friends that share a plan, this should help the company increase its overall user base.

Microsoft Upgrades Xbox S's RAM

Microsoft gives Xbox S developers more memory control. A new Xbox SDK gives developers extra RAM for Xbox Series S games and enhances performance in specific titles.

Xbox Series S developers now have hundreds of megabytes more RAM, claims Microsoft's Game Dev team. This allows developers additional memory control, improving graphics performance in memory-constrained scenarios.

The $299 Xbox Series S was advertised as able to play games in 1440p at up to 120fps, and many games have only reached 1080p and don't have the higher frame rates of Xbox Series X. The more powerful Xbox Series X console from Microsoft comes with a much more powerful GPU and 16GB of RAM, while the smaller Xbox Series S only has 10GB. On the Series S, developers can only use about 8GB of memory because Microsoft uses about 2GB for OS tasks.

Digital Foundry has outlined the Xbox Series S's memory limits, causing developers headaches when optimizing games. It's not the CPU or GPU of the Xbox Series S, as it has the same CPU as the X, but the memory. Microsoft's minor enhancements might lessen friction in Xbox Series S game development.

Additionally, Microsoft has fixed a problem that caused graphics virtual addresses to be allocated far more slowly than non-graphics virtual addresses. It will allow Xbox games to now benefit from additional memory improvements made to Microsoft's Xbox development tools. This should imply that Xbox Series S games will eventually run more quickly.