Xbox Series X: Local Accounts for friends and family

Hi,

I bought a new Xbox Series X because my Xbox 360 broke after many years of loyal entertainment for me, my family and friends. I am a casual player who just wants to play games together with friends on the couch - that's why I chose a console over a computer.

This just seems impossible with the Xbox Series X. I bought it to play local games with my friends (e.g., Bomberman Battlefest, Castle Crashers, ...) without any nonsense and configuring around before starting the fun. I always thought that would be the one single reason why anyone would choose a console over a computer. Microsoft advertises the Series X saying that these games perfectly work on the new console, so I decided to buy it. Well, the games start, but you can't play together with your friends.

On the Xbox 360 I had my Xbox Live profile and my friends and family simply activated a controler, chose a funny name and avatar, and after some seconds every new player was ready to start a local multiplayer game. Even better: Everyone who had already played with me before could simply activate a controler and choose his name to join a game. None of these persons has a Xbox Live account and why should they? In most cases they do not even have a Microsoft account since they neither use a computer nor have own consoles ... or simply are children.

However, a Xbox Live account seems to be required now. When adding another player, the one and only choice you have is to log in another Xbox Live profile. So you seriously expect me to create a Microsoft account, then create a Xbox Live account, connect the Xbox Live account to the new Microsoft account, and finally log it in on my Xbox Series X for every nephew and niece of mine just to spontaneously play a game? That is completely absurd.

While searching for a solution I found the 'guest accounts' the Xbox Series X offers. However, it didn't help, as these guest accounts don't seem to work with the games I tried at all. Moreover, even if they would work, they would be deleted everytime you turn off the console anyway. Why should one implement such a pointless feature after there had been a perfectly comfortable and simple way to handle this for years on every established console? --> The local accounts!

In short: Where on my Xbox Series X do I find the basic possibility to set up a local account for friends quickly and easily, just as it has been completely normal since the old generations of consoles? And when will I be able to play (Xbox 360) multiplayer games local with friends again?

Unfortunately, this problem seems far from new and there are countless threads which do not seem to offer any solutions (for example here). How can such a basic thing be an issue for such a long time? To be honest, at the moment I don't know what to do with this 'great new console'. To only use it alone, it is completely useless for me. Will there be a convenient way of playing local games with friends in the very near future, as it has been a matter of course elsewhere for decades, and once also was on the Xbox?

Best regards and thanks in advance,

Seb

:)