Estate planning as a Xbox account holder

Xbox is Microsoft's gaming platform spanning Xbox consoles, the Xbox app on Windows and mobile, and cloud gaming. An Xbox profile holds a gamertag, a digital game library of purchased titles and in-game content, an Xbox Game Pass subscription (game catalog, cloud saves, cloud gaming), and Xbox wallet funds (Microsoft account balance and redeemed gift cards). An Xbox profile is not a standalone account: it signs in with, and is tied to, the same Microsoft account that holds Outlook.com email, OneDrive, and any Microsoft 365 subscription. Because of that, the path to a deceased person's Xbox profile is the broader Microsoft account process, not a separate Xbox bereavement workflow.

When a Xbox account holder dies, their accounts may be transferred to a designated person at Microsoft Corporation's sole discretion. A transfer is not guaranteed, and satisfactory documentation is required before processing any request.

What happens at death

Access to a deceased person's Xbox profile is governed by Microsoft's deceased-account process, which Microsoft reviews case by case. In the United States, Microsoft requires a valid subpoena or court order formally served on its registered agent before it will consider releasing account content, and even then content is provided via data delivery rather than by granting account access or transferring the account. The Microsoft Services Agreement (Section 4.a.i) states "You cannot transfer your Microsoft account credentials to another user or entity," so the Xbox profile itself cannot pass to an heir. The gaming-specific assets are effectively forfeited at closure: under Section 14.a.vi you receive "a limited, personal, revocable, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to use the game currency and virtual goods in the Xbox Services only" and "no right or title in or to any such game currency or virtual goods," and under Section 14.j digital goods are "only for your personal, noncommercial entertainment use" and may not be transferred. Xbox Game Pass is a personal subscription tied to the account and is not transferable. Xbox wallet funds are Microsoft account balance, which the Microsoft gift cards terms state is "non-transferable to another person or Microsoft account" and, "Except as required by applicable law," cannot be "redeemed or exchanged for cash." A physical Xbox console and any disc-based games remain usable by anyone who has the hardware, but the digital library, Game Pass, and wallet balance do not survive closure of the account.