Xbox Live Family Packs converting into individual Gold accounts Aug. 27
Xbox Live Family Pack subscribers will soon have their bundled Xbox Live Gold accounts dissolved into individual, unlinked accounts on Tuesday, August 27, Microsoft announced yesterday in an email to subscribers.
In addition to having multiple subscription fees to worry about, this also means that users will no longer be able to access Family Pack-exclusive features, such as activity monitoring reports or the ability to allocate MS Point allowances to linked accounts. Reports will be removed during the account conversion on August 27, whereas allowances will be removed whenever the currency exchange takes place.
Microsoft is adding an additional three months of time to every Xbox Live Gold account that spawns from the conversion, so considering how Xbox Live Gold feature sharing works on the Xbox One, this isn't the worst of all possible futures – that's the one where Microsoft converts all Xbox Live Family Pack subscribers into Fruit-of-the-Month-Calendars of the Month Club subscribers. Every month, a new calendar about a different Fruit of the Month club!
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Xbox Live Gold Family Pack Conversion to Individual Memberships
As a valued Xbox Live Gold member, we'd like to thank you and your family for being part of the Gold community.
We continually evaluate our offerings and are always working to provide services that best meet the needs of our customers.
Starting August 27, 2013, we will be converting each activated account on your Gold Family Pack to an individual Xbox Live Gold membership to prepare for new upcoming features on Xbox Live Gold. Rest assured, each individual membership will work on both Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
Through the new Home Gold feature on Xbox One, a single Xbox Live Gold membership will allow anyone in your home to enjoy many Gold features like multiplayer, access to Gold entertainment apps, and more on your Xbox One.*
As a bonus, we will give each converted individual Xbox Live Gold membership from your Gold Family Pack an extra 3 months of Gold (in addition to the time remaining on your membership term).**
Before your memberships convert, you can still add family members to your Xbox Live Gold Family Pack, for a total of up to four accounts. However, any unassigned secondary accounts will no longer be accessible after your conversion. Please be sure to update your secondary accounts here.
After your memberships convert, the only Gold Family Pack features that will no longer be available are activity monitoring reports and Microsoft Points allowances. Activity monitoring reports will deactivate at the time of Gold Family Pack conversion, whereas the Microsoft Points allowance feature will no longer be available after the next Xbox 360 system update. Xbox Live family settings, including parental controls for what your kids can access and play on or offline, will still be available.
We hope you enjoy your 3 bonus months of Xbox Live Gold and continue to benefit from your Xbox Live Gold memberships on Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
Sincerely,
The Xbox Live Team
