5

My brother recently bought an Xbox One.

I have a lot more games on my account than he has on his, but I am wondering if the following setup might give either of us a downside?

  • I add my account to his Xbox, and set it as my home xbox
  • If he at some point buys games I haven't bought, we do the same the other way around, add his account to my xbox and set my xbox as his home xbox

Would this give me a disadvantage on my own xbox? Would I have to sign in more often? With the "Home xbox" setting I gather that he will get access to all my games. Can we play my games at the same time? ie. he doesn't have Battlefield 4, but can both he and I both log on to Battlefield 4 using my game and play it together?

Is this illegal in any way? We're both under the same roof if that matters at all.

Basically my question comes down to this: With the above setup, will either of us run into any problems or disadvantages?

Let me try to clarify.

  • Two xboxes under the same roof
  • Two accounts, mine, and his
  • Proposed setup:
    • I add my account to his Xbox, and set his Xbox as my home Xbox
    • (Optional for now) He adds his account to my Xbox, and sets my Xbox as his home Xbox
    • We can then download and install any games from my account onto his Xbox
  • I understand that I can still play my own games on my own Xbox
  • I gather that he will also be able to play my games on his Xbox

The questions are:

  • Can we do it at the same time? Ie. both fire up my accounts Battlefield 4 (he doesn't have BF4 on his account) and play it, together?
  • Will there be any downsides to this? Such as both xboxes (which are now thus not our "home xbox" any more) require more frequent logins, or other such things?

One of the reasons I ask is that it seems this is some kind of loophole. I mean, with the above setup, if this is both legal and have no downsides (or at least none worth complaining about), wouldn't this effectively mean that we only have to buy 1 copy of a game from now on, and still be able to both play it?

Improve this question
7
  • So let me try and clarify. You and your brother both have an Xbox One in the same household, and you are wondering about how the home setting works. If you set your Home to his xbox you are unsure if your games will still be playable on your box?
    – Rapitor
    Commented Oct 20, 2014 at 17:07
  • I gather that games will be playable on both Xboxes, ie. I can play Battlefield from my account on my Xbox, and he can play Battlefield from my account on his Xbox. I am wondering if we can do it at the same time, and if there are other disadvantages, such as my Xbox (which is thus no longer my home xbox) will need more frequent logins or something.
    – Lasse V. Karlsen
    Commented Oct 20, 2014 at 17:20
  • I added more text at the bottom of the question clarifying, hope it became clearer
    – Lasse V. Karlsen
    Commented Oct 20, 2014 at 17:25
  • From what I've experienced only you can only be logged in one console at a time, and only have one game that your account owns launched at a time. This sounds like a simple enough problem you could just test yourself. Home setting can be switched freely so there is little risk.
    – Rapitor
    Commented Oct 20, 2014 at 18:32
  • With the home xbox setting, you don't have to be logged in, that's what apparently is the beauty of it, so I don't actually have to log on my account on his xbox after installing it for him to play the games. I guess we'll just have to try it.
    – Lasse V. Karlsen
    Commented Oct 20, 2014 at 18:38

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
3

Can we do it at the same time? Ie. both fire up my accounts Battlefield 4 (he doesn't have BF4 on his account) and play it, together?

Yes, this is possible. I did it with Destiny, CoD Ghosts and some other games.
And your brother would also get xbox live gold access if you have it.

Is this illegal in any way?

Will there be any downsides to this? Such as both xboxes (which are now thus not our "home xbox" any more) require more frequent logins, or other such things?

I am using this for about one month and have no problems at all. As far as I know is this intended to used like this.
You just need to login once to setup the home xbox. After the home xbox is set your brother can login as usual.

Improve this answer
2
  • I have done the same thing with Minecraft on Xone and it works fine. I also used to do it with my two 360s. It is my non-lawyer understanding that this functionality is why the "Home" xbox system exists.
    – Eben
    Commented Oct 21, 2014 at 21:18
  • If it is two xbox ones using the same account, this is definetly not intended to work, as microsoft directly state on their xbone faq site thst you can have a 360 and an xbone signed in to the same account, st the same time, but not two of the same console
    – user106385
    Commented Aug 6, 2015 at 8:15
0

You can do this. This is the how it's meant to be used for you to both play. The only downside that you may come across is when a third person, say a sister/cousin/girlfriend, makes an account on your Xbox.

If there's not a home account with gold they won't have gold automatically. But if you set it up both ways and both of you have gold, people can still get gold when creating accounts on your Xbox.

Also the third person won't have access to your games, only your friend's games.

Improve this answer
1
  • Welcome to Gaming SE. I suggested an edit to improve the clarity of your answer. Feel free to improve it further or correct any misunderstandings using the edit button.
    – Svj0hn
    Commented Aug 6, 2015 at 6:02

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.