Microsoft announced today that the upcoming Xbox One will allow every account on the console to access Xbox Live Gold through a single subscription.
The program, Home Gold, is limited to a Gold account’s home console, however, people who have directly subscribed to Gold can go to a friend’s house and log in with their account while still having access too all of the benefits. This won’t permanently grant Xbox Live Gold-specific privileges to all of your friends and their consoles, but services that you’re paying for stay with your account regardless of where you are. Unless of course you’re on an Xbox 360, as Home Gold is exclusive to the Xbox One.
According to Xbox Wire, the impetus behind letting players share Xbox Live Gold amenities across Gamertags on a single console is being able to give players more personal, individualized experiences with their specific Gamertags. For example, if every family member or roommate had to use your account to play games online or watch Netflix, your stellar kills-to-death ratio in Call of Duty might be ruined, and your preference for Buffy the Vampire Slayer would be buried under a slew of recommendations for shows similar to Angelina Ballerina. Plus, it could save large households quite a bit of money.
If I do end up getting an Xbox One and Xbox Live Gold, it’s nice to know that my wife, kids, and my friend (who visits every other weekend to play our association in NBA 2k13) will all have access to the same content I do without ever having to lay their grubby hands on my account. If nothing else, this does make this week’s news that Microsoft will continue restricting things like Netflix and Skype to paid subscribers on the Xbox One easier to swallow — but only just a bit.