Xbox One Gameshare: How to Do it
Buying games digitally can be very convenient for those not wanting to deal with retailers or excess packaging cluttering up your home, but makes it almost impossible to share a game with friends and family. The digital licenses for games are tied to single accounts or physical systems, though the Xbox One has a feature that allows you to share your digital library with another Xbox One owner.
It is called “gamesharing” and gives unrestricted access to another person’s digital library while still signed in to your own account. It is helpful if you have multiple Xbox One consoles in one house, so family members can play together online with a single copy of a game.
Gamesharing can also be done with a friend who does not live with you, but please do it with someone that you immediately trust and not a stranger asking on the internet. The process involves both people having full access to each other’s accounts, including passwords and billing information.
Here’s how to gameshare between on Xbox One, between two consoles:
- Press the Xbox button to bring up the guide and scroll to the left to your profile’s icon for the sign in screen. Select “Add new” and sign in to the other person’s account on your Xbox One.
- While signed in to the other account on your personal console, go to the “Settings” menu and highlight “Personalization.” Select “My home Xbox” and the “Make this my home Xbox” option should appear. Selecting it will make your console the home Xbox for the other account, allowing you to play games tied to the account without signing in. An Xbox Live Gold membership can also be shared across accounts.
- Have the other person do these steps with your account, and you both should see each other’s games in the “Ready to Install” menu of “My games & Apps.”
The process only works between two accounts, and will need to be redone if replacing a console or upgrading to the Xbox One X. Changing your home Xbox can only be done up to five times in the span of one year, so this is not a feature that should be used too often.
