Share PC Game Pass trials with your friends through a new Referral Program

What you need to know

• Microsoft is introducing a new Referral Program for PC Game Pass. 
• The program allows existing subscribers of PC Game Pass or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to share 14-day trials of PC Game Pass with up to five friends. 
• The friends have to be new to Game Pass in order to accept the trials. 

If you need some more friends to play a game together on Windows PC, you've got a new option for swaying them over. 

As shared on Tuesday via Xbox Wire, the new Game Pass Friend Referral Program allows existing PC Game Pass or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers to give a free 14-day trial of PC Game Pass to up to five friends. The free trial includes everything currently offered in PC Game Pass, including EA Play and the Riot Games perks, the latter of which includes every Agent in Valorant, every champion in League of Legends, and more.

Subscribers can manage Friend Referral invitations from the Game Pass home screen, and it's important to keep in mind that in order for a friend to accept the invitation, they need to be new to Xbox Game Pass. The Friend Referral Program is slated to roll out today, but if you don't see it immediately you may need to wait a few hours and restart your system.

Windows Central's take

We've all run into the difficulties of planning a multiplayer session with a group of friends and realizing not everyone has the same games, so this is a neat way to allow PC users to get around that. I might actually take advantage of this to try and get a friend or two to try Total War: Warhammer 3, since it's still available on the service. 

That said, it's obviously not going to fill the sorely-needed gap of the Xbox Game Pass Family Plan, which is currently in testing in a few countries but is not yet available for everyone. The Family Plan allows up to five users to get Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for a discounted price.