XBOX Game Pass Ultimate & Family Sharing for Cloud Gaming?

Shamirt · Sep 23, 2022

Hi all,

having searched through the topic of family sharing and game passes, it looks as though the topic has been covered many times. I am, however, struggling to find details on sharing an ultimate game pass with my family without an XBOX.

I don't have an XBOX (yet), however our new TV can be used to play games in the cloud. I bought an ultimate game pass yesterday and sure enough, this works fine when logged in to my MS account. This pass doesn't seem to be active for members of my family (we tried logging them on to the TV, and via the XBOX app on their Windows PCs).

Is the Game Pass allowed to be shared with the family when using an XBOX only? This is disappointing if so

Many thanks in advance.

:)

Qeyxar

TL;DR No.

For Cloud Gaming you need to have an active Game Pass Ultimate subscription. You can not share it with your family or friends like you can do with other subscription benefits.

HomegrownSilky

Cloud gaming can only be played with an account that PURCHASED Game Pass Ultimate. If you are sharing GPU through the Home console feature, then you will not be able to play in the cloud. That is only for the accounts that actually paid for Game Pass Ultimate.

John P_14

Hi and thanks for reaching out. I hope you’re doing well. I'm an Independent Advisor and a Microsoft user like you and I'll be happy to help you.

I understand you need assistance with cloud gaming. Just to clarify, Xbox Family Group is not related to cloud gaming and is only used for managing family members' account restrictions. On an Xbox console, you can share your subscription with family members using the Home Xbox feature. However, please note that only the account that has the Game Pass Ultimate subscription will be able to access cloud gaming, as it is not shareable.

SwordofWhedon

Supporting a cloud user is extremely expensive compared to someone on a console. For example you downloading a 50GB game may cost Microsoft a few cents, but supporting the Series X in their data center, paying for that hardware, the air conditioning, the electricity etc is a big additional expense. You're renting an Xbox for that time. Combine this with the fact the service is still in beta, and likely doesn't have the physical hardware in place quite yet, nor the software for large scale deployment in its launch form.

So please understand why cloud users are limited at this time. I would speculate that MS is looking at new ways to add additional users as soon as they feel they are on solid footing to support it

SwordofWhedon

Cloud gaming is only accessible by the primary account holder. On a physical console as long as everyone’s home Xbox is set to the same unit, you will all be able to access the service.

It’s possible in the future there will be new choices that cover more cloud users,

XBOX Game Pass Ultimate & Family Sharing for Cloud Gaming?