Earlier this year, Microsoft discontinued its Xbox Live Gold Family Pack, an option for families to purchase multiple Gold memberships at a reduced rate. It now appears that it's making its way back to the Xbox One in one way or another. Polygon reports that multiple accounts will be able to share an Xbox Live Gold membership from a console.

"Anybody who has usage privilege on that machine can use it," says Microsoft's Phil Harrison, indicating that the system could be familiar to the Family Pack method of assigning Xbox Live Gold to additional accounts. Discussing the family aspect, Harrison describes a way for a father and son to have separate accounts while sharing the same Xbox Live Gold subscription. "We want you log in to get your stuff, and when he logs in to get his stuff. On that console, if you have Gold, he can use Gold as well."

A justification for the ongoing Live cost?

Unsurprisingly, Xbox One owners won't have to purchase a separate Xbox Live subscription to utilize the new console alongside the Xbox 360. Existing Xbox Live Gold memberships will apply to both systems. Microsoft isn't detailing the Xbox Live subscription costs for the One console, or whether the Gold subscription for family members will work across additional consoles. If there's no additional charge for the family support, and the overall subscription cost remains the same, then it could be a first step in justifying the ongoing cost of Xbox Live Gold which enables the majority of existing apps on the Xbox 360 and multiplayer gaming.