Xbox Live Gold memberships apply to both Xbox One and 360

Xbox Live Gold memberships on Xbox One will be flexible and streamlined, according to Microsoft, allowing console owners to use their Gold account on both the Xbox One and Xbox 360 and letting multiple users share the same account.

"If you have an Xbox Gold membership today for 360 and you buy an Xbox One, your membership applies to both systems," Microsoft's Phil Harrison told Polygon. "You don't have to get another subscription."

Multiple members of a household will be able to share a single account, Harrison said, explaining, "Anybody who has usage privilege on that machine can use it."

Microsoft's Ben Kilgore said that multiple accounts will be able to ride on the same Xbox Live Gold membership, but that individual users will have access to their own friends lists and other personalizations.

"We want to make sure that you and your son both have your own account," Kilgore said, in describing the case of a father and son sharing an Xbox Live Gold membership. "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."

Kilgore said that Microsoft is still working out the specifics of how players follow and befriend each other. One-way relationships may be part of Xbox Live's friends architecture, "something that's under development right now," and that Microsoft is working to determine "who your true two-way relationship friends are."