Skip to main content
Welcome to game and app flighting on XBOX consoles and Windows PCs with the XBOX Insider Program! The XBOX Insider Program is a powerful service that allows you to flight your game or app in the RETAIL environment. You can use it for development, testing, or marketing purposes. With the XBOX Insider Program you can…
  • Quickly and securely deploy your game/app or content update on XBOX consoles or Windows PCs at any phase of development (including post release)
  • Target the audience you want, from a few studio personnel to millions of external users, and expand over time
  • Allow participants to quickly join, download, and play from anywhere in the world
  • Flight to 50,000 or fewer external users with a minimal Certification review
  • Get actionable feedback with built-in tools
In this topic you’ll find the 5 key steps needed to flight, along with guidance for common scenarios when configuring and managing flights. For any other inquiries, speak to the XBOX Insider team. Contact details for the team are available in the Who are my Microsoft Contacts? topic. We look forward to partnering with you!

​
Step 1: Complete XBOX Insider Program onboarding

To get started with XBOX Insider flighting, the first step is to complete the XBOX Insider Program onboarding flow via Microsoft Partner Center. For access to the XBOX Insider Program onboarding, speak to the XBOX Insider team. Once your account has the required permissions, you can access XBOX Insider Program onboarding by following the steps below.
  1. Sign in to Microsoft Partner Center.
  2. Select the product you want to flight (see Step 2 below for guidance on selecting which product to flight).
  3. From the product navigation, select XBOX Insider Program under the Services heading.
  4. Follow the prompts on-screen to get started.
The onboarding process has a few auto-approved steps. Continue the onboarding process until you have submitted art assets. You might need to refresh the page as you complete the onboarding process. You’ll receive an email confirmation once your onboarding request is approved or if there are any issues with the submission. The XBOX Insider Team will then reach out to confirm details and coordinate the start of your flight over email. From the time your onboarding request is approved, there is a 3-business day SLA to configure the flight for the XBOX Insider Program.
Products must have submitted for and received Concept Approval before they are eligible for XBOX Insider Program flighting.

​
Step 2: Configure the flight product

Before flighting kicks off, it’s important to decide which product to flight. By default, we recommend flighting a separate demo product (which means creating a second product in Partner Center). Flighting a separate demo product is the simplest approach to flighting because it doesn’t interfere with the Certification, pre-order, or purchase of the main product (the product that will be sold/available at release). In certain circumstances, flighting the main product also makes sense, but has certain drawbacks. You can use the table below as a guide to determine which approach is best. Before deciding, consult with the XBOX Insider Team.

​
Step 2A: Private Audience

Private Audience is a setting configured in the Pricing and Availability section of Partner Center. By configuring a product with Private Audience, users must be on an approved list to access the product’s Microsoft Store Product Details Page (PDP) or redeem a promotional code. This setting is useful when flighting confidential or unannounced games/apps. Without Private Audience, a user with a direct link can still access the product’s Microsoft Store PDP or redeem a promotional code for the product. To use Private Audience during flighting, speak to the XBOX Insider team. They can create a Private Audience group and expose it in Partner Center. For more information about Private Audience, see Visibility - Audiences.

​
Step 2B: Package flighting

Package flighting is Partner Center’s means to flight multiple versions of a product to specific users or devices. Publishing through Partner Center, you can flight any number of versions of your product. To use package flighting during XBOX Insider flighting, contact the XBOX Insider team. For more information about package flights, see How to package flights.

​
Step 3: Choose a target audience

Before flighting can start, you’ll need to select a target audience. There are millions of XBOX Insiders. When flighting a game or app, you can target all XBOX Insiders or limit the audience based on custom criteria.
You can flight to up to 50,000 external users with a minimal Certification review (submission validation and antivirus check). To flight to an external audience greater than 50,000, the product must be submitted to Certification and pass the Requirements for Open Betas and Game Previews.
To become an XBOX Insider, a user needs to download and install the XBOX Insider Hub app (available free of charge in the Microsoft Store) and accept the Terms of Use. There is no external registration or sign-up process. When selecting a target audience, participants can be limited based on one or more of the following custom criteria.
  • A user’s Gamertag, or a list of specific Gamertags
  • An XBOX Live Device ID or list of specific XBOX Live Device IDs
  • Users in specific regions
  • OS version either XBOX Consoles or Windows PCs
  • Users who own specific products (must be from the same publisher)
  • Users who have pre-ordered specific products (must be from the same publisher)
  • Users who have an active subscription to an XBOX service (for example XBOX Game Pass)
  • Specific XBOX console devices (for example XBOX Series X, XBOX Series S or XBOX One)
  • Users who are Microsoft employees (under NDA)

​
Step 4: Request promotional codes

All unreleased products are flighted using Private Audience or promotional codes. If you opt to use promotional codes, you’ll need enough promotional codes to cover the target audience. If you’re unsure of how many codes to request, the XBOX Insider Team can provide a recommendation. For limited internal flighting, up to 5,000 tokens can be generated within minutes from Partner Center after you have published the product to the RETAIL sandbox. For more information, see Generate promotional codes. For audience sizes greater than 5,000, work with your Microsoft account team, ID@XBOX representatives or the XBOX Insider Team.
Token requests processed outside of Partner Center might take up to 5 business days.

​
Step 5: Complete the retail publish

The flighted product must be published to the RETAIL sandbox with one of the following configurations. If you are using Private Audience
  1. Go to Microsoft Partner Center.
  2. Go to the product you want to configure.
  3. Select the Pricing and Availability module from the product page navigation.
  4. In the Visibility section, configure Private Audience.
  5. In the Discoverability section, select Make this product available and discoverable in the Microsoft Store.
  6. Scroll to the bottom of the page and then select Save draft.
  7. When you are ready, select Review and Publish to publish your configuration to the RETAIL sandbox.
If you are using Public Audience with Promotional Codes
  1. Go to Microsoft Partner Center.
  2. Go to the product you want to configure.
  3. Select the Pricing and Availability module from the product page navigation.
  4. In the Discoverability section, select Make this product available but not discoverable in the Microsoft Store, and: and then select Stop acquisition.
  5. Scroll to the bottom of the page and then select Save draft.
  6. When you are ready, select Review and Publish to publish your configuration to the RETAIL sandbox.
Once the publish to RETAIL completes, the XBOX Insider Team will complete a final publish of the flight to the XBOX Insider Hub. Afterwards, the flighting can begin.

​
Step 6: Access the flight

After the flight is published to the XBOX Insider Hub, users in the target audience can follow these steps to get access.
  1. Install the XBOX Insider Hub app from the Store.
  2. Launch the XBOX Insider Hub app.
  3. Sign in with an approved account.
  4. From the XBOX Insider Hub, navigate to Previews and then select the name of the game or app being flighted.
  5. Select Join.
  6. Wait to be redirected to the Store, and then install the game/app.

​
Flighting multiple versions

With the XBOX Insider Program you can flight multiple versions of your game/app to different target audiences. Use the information below as a reference, and contact the XBOX Insider team before configuring a flight with multiple game/app versions.

​
Configuring a new package flight

  1. Determine the number of game/app versions you’d like to flight.
  2. Create a title and description for each version.
  3. Contact the XBOX Insider Team.
  4. The XBOX Insider Team will create a new user or device group for the purpose of flighting each game or app version. The following example assumes that the XBOX Insider Team has created a new device group named Title Post-Release to flight a single version.
  5. The XBOX Insider Program exposes the new device group Title Post-Release to the Partner’s Seller ID in Partner Center. The device group is comprised of consoles or PCs, and consoles or PCs within the group are identified by their own unique Device ID.
  6. The studio creates a package flight branch in Partner Center to flight the game or app update, and targets the Title Post-Release device group created by the XBOX Insider Program.
  7. The package flight branch is then ready to be published to the RETAIL sandbox.
Membership in the package flight group is managed via the XBOX Insider Hub. When a user joins the flight in the XBOX Insider Hub, their User or Device ID is added to the package flight group. If the user unenrolls from the flight, their User or Device ID is removed from the package flight group.
The version number of the package update needs to be higher than the version number available to the general public. For example, if the version available to the general public is 2.0.0.1, the flighted version needs to be 2.0.0.2 or higher. If the package version number isn’t higher, the package won’t automatically update.
Using the flight interface within the XBOX Insider Hub, you can allow all users enrolled in a flight, or specific users, to move between different package flights of the game/app.

​
A/B testing

A/B testing through the XBOX Insider Program is possible using package flights in Partner Center. In Partner Center, you can flight any number of different versions of a game or app to a selected group of users or devices. Users or devices can be selected for the control or treatment group based on a number of criteria, including:
  • A user’s Gamertag, or a list of specific Gamertags
  • An XBOX Live Device ID or list of specific XBOX Live Device IDs
  • Users in specific regions
  • OS version either XBOX Consoles or Windows PCs
  • Users who own specific products (must be from the same publisher)
  • Users who have pre-ordered specific products (must be from the same publisher)
  • Users who have an active subscription to an XBOX service (for example XBOX Game Pass)
  • Specific XBOX console devices (for example XBOX Series X, XBOX Series S or XBOX One)
  • Users who are Microsoft employees (under NDA)
These criteria determine the group a user or device can join when registering through the XBOX Insider Hub.
  • Users or devices can be eligible to join more than one group
  • Users or devices only see groups they are eligible to join. Therefore, you can choose to limit a user or device’s visibility to only the control group or only the treatment group
  • From a user perspective, the XBOX Insider Hub can be configured so users don’t notice any difference when registering for the control group or the treatment group

​
Security and confidentiality

The XBOX Insider Program maintains audiences of Microsoft employees who are covered under a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). For basic feedback and testing, you can securely flight your title to Microsoft employees. External users participating in the XBOX Insider Program aren’t bound by an NDA or confidentiality agreement. When flighting to external users, we can’t guarantee the confidentiality of any flight or game/app. For more information on flighting to external users, see the XBOX Insider Program Terms of Use.

​
Secure token distribution

When flighting through the XBOX Insider Program, distribution and redemption of promotional codes (5x5 tokens) are managed through the XBOX Insider Hub. Tokens are redeemed on behalf of the user joining the flight, and the user never sees the token or has the means to share or distribute it to another user.

​
Embargo

Embargo is a product setting available in Partner Center. Embargo restricts social and sharing features on the XBOX network, which includes:
  • Prevents users from sharing screenshots or videos using built-in XBOX functionality.
  • Prevents the product from appearing in presence (now playing) or history.
For confidential playtests, enable Embargo. For marketing-focused playtests, disable Embargo. For more information, see XBOX embargo.

​
Private Audience

Products flighting through Partner Center can use Private Audience, which adds an additional layer of security to the product.
  • The Store page for the product isn’t visible if the user isn’t part of the Private Audience group.
  • Users can’t redeem a code for the product if the user isn’t part of the Private Audience group.
To use Private Audience, the XBOX Insider Team must create a Private Audience group and expose it in Partner Center. Private Audience can also be used to flight outside of the XBOX Insider Program, but it includes additional restrictions. The audience is limited to 10,000, and it requires collection of user PII (Microsoft accounts). For more information about Private Audience, see Visibility - Audiences.

​
XBOX Insider Program Terms of Use

Products flighting through the XBOX Insider Program have the option of using the standard XBOX Insider Program Terms of Use. Any user joining the flight is prompted to agree to the Terms of Use before joining. The XBOX Insider Program Terms of Use are localized into the standard XBOX languages. If an external user breaks the XBOX Insider Program Terms of Use, we can take enforcement action on their XBOX account, leading up to and including a permanent ban from XBOX services.
Standard Non-Game Sharing Terms of Use You acknowledge that everything related to this Flight Program for [GAME] (“Game”) is confidential and should be treated as confidential until the Game is generally available to the public. Please keep in mind that features you see in this Flight Program may change or be removed in the final version and those features should always remain confidential even after release of the Game. By clicking “Accept”, you agree to the following terms: 1. Do not take photos, videos, or audio recordings of the Game 2. Do not share or post photos, videos, or audio recordings of the Game online or offline on any platform, social media or website 3. Do not describe any part of the Game online or offline on any platform, social media or website unless we’ve instructed you to 4. Do not allow others to watch you play the Game 5. Do not leave the Game running unattended 6. No compensation will be paid with respect to Microsoft’s use of your Feedback Microsoft reserves the right to terminate your XBOX account, user profile and/or device access to all or part of the XBOX network service, including the Flight Program, at any time without notice for any reason whatsoever. Definitions Flight Program: Enablement of access to pre-release binary downloads associated with the user experience, functionality and playability of the Game in advance of release to a general availability audience Feedback: Any data provided by the end user in the form of bug submissions, telemetry, or responses to surveys, quests, quick polls or ratings in the XBOX Insider Hub

​
Certification

Certification needs and timing vary based on the target audience for the game or app.
  • For detailed information, review the Prerelease Testing Options topic.
  • If the target audience is fewer than 50,000 external participants, the submission only needs to pass Submission Validation and Antivirus checks, and the Certification SLA is 24 hours.
  • If the target audience is greater than 50,000 external participants, the submission must pass the Requirements for Open Betas and Game Previews.
Products being flighted via the XBOX Insider Program can also become eligible for the XBOX Rapid Updates program.

​
Communications and promotions

XBOX Insider Blog The XBOX Insider Blog, hosted on the XBOX Wire, is used to communicate all external-facing XBOX Insider Program-related content. Here, the XBOX Insider Team announces and promotes upcoming game or app flighting opportunities. XBOX Insiders Subreddit The XBOX Insiders Subreddit is where XBOX Staff and XBOX Insiders interact, ask, and answer questions, and promote an “Insiders helping Insiders” community. Topics include system OS flights, non-confidential game flights, feature requests, and other XBOX-related topics. @XBOXInsider on X The @XBOXInsider X handle is used in conjunction with the blog to announce new content and playtest opportunities.

​
Monetization

In most cases, monetization isn’t permitted during flighting. For information about whether monetization might be permitted for your product, review the XBOX Games Store Policy in the XBOX Publisher Guide.

​
Self-service audience management

You can self-manage user access to your XBOX Insider Program flight by following the steps below to create a Known user group in Microsoft Partner Center.
You need to collect or have access to Microsoft account email addresses to self-manage user access to your flight. Microsoft account email addresses are considered sensitive PII (Personally Identifiable Information), and this approach isn’t recommended for external flighting.
  1. In Microsoft Partner Center, navigate to the Apps and games dashboard.
  2. From the left navigation, under the Engage heading, select Customer groups.
  3. Select Create new group.
  4. Enter a Group name and then select Known user group.
  5. Add the desired Microsoft accounts to the group (using Microsoft account email addresses).
  6. Select Save.
  7. Provide the Group name to the XBOX Insider Team. They’ll follow up with steps for permitted Microsoft accounts to access your flight.
Removing a Microsoft account from a Known user group won’t revoke access to the game/app.

​
Expanding the target audience

To expand the target audience for your flight during flighting, send a request to the XBOX Insider team.
There is a 1 business day SLA on requests to change the target audience for a flight. With advance notice, changes can be made on specific dates/times.

​
Audience management details

User groups User groups are created by the XBOX Insider Team and contain specific Microsoft accounts of users who have access to a flight and/or flight ring. These groups can be edited as needed, and multiple user groups can be used at once. User groups are the most common way to restrict access to a flight to an approved list of users.
Removing a Microsoft account from a user group won’t revoke access to the game/app.
Visibility Rules Visibility Rules specify the criteria a user must meet in order to view a flight in the XBOX Insider Hub app. The rules are created by the XBOX Insider Team when the flight is configured. A flight with no Visibility Rules is visible to all XBOX Insiders. Visibility Rules are configured to create the target audience. The following basic Visibility Rules can be configured on a flight and/or flight ring:
  • A user’s Gamertag, or a list of specific Gamertags
  • An XBOX Device ID or list of specific XBOX Device IDs
  • Users in specific regions
  • OS version either XBOX Consoles or Windows PCs
  • Users who own specific products (must be from the same publisher)
  • Users who have pre-ordered specific products (must be from the same publisher)
  • Users who have an active subscription to an XBOX service (for example XBOX Game Pass)
  • Specific XBOX console devices (for example XBOX Series X, XBOX Series S or XBOX One)
  • Users who are Microsoft employees (under NDA)
When expanding the audience who can access a flight, Visibility Rules are updated to meet the new audience criteria. Content updates during flighting During flighting, publishing a content update functions in the same manner as publishing a content update for a game or app in Retail. There are no additional flighting-specific requirements to publish a content update. Once a game or app has been submitted and passed certification with no unfixed Conditions for Resubmission (CFRs) identified, updates are eligible for the XBOX Rapid Updates program. These updates don’t receive further XBOX Requirement (XR) testing.

​
User feedback

During flighting, flight participants have two primary methods to provide feedback.
  • Report a problem (console only)
  • XBOX Insider Hub surveys

​
Report a problem (Console only)

Report a problem is available for XBOX consoles as a part of the XBOX Insider bundle, which can be acquired via the Microsoft Store. It allows users to hold down the XBOX button on their controller and select Report a problem from the power menu. The Report a problem flow then walks users through selecting a Category and Subcategory, and providing a title and description for their feedback. Feedback received via Report a problem is delivered to a list of email addresses in daily reports. The reports contain the bug’s title, description, version, and any screenshots or videos the feedback creator included. The XBOX Insider Team can add or remove recipients from these daily reports at any time.
Report a problem isn’t available on PCs.

​
XBOX Insider Hub surveys

Game and app flights have the option to enable premade surveys that allow users to provide their feedback on the game or app flight. Users can access surveys by navigating to the Activities section on the XBOX Insider Hub’s main landing page, or by navigating to the flight in the Insider content and selecting the Surveys tab. Users only see flight surveys if they are registered for the flight. The XBOX Insider Program maintains a selection of premade, localized surveys that are useful for gathering feedback. These surveys cover a range of topics including customer satisfaction, gameplay, controls, multiplayer, and approachability. To cover custom survey questions, we can create a direct link in the XBOX Insider Hub to an external survey website (such as SurveyGizmo or SurveyMonkey). Results from surveys can be delivered during flighting, at the flight’s conclusion, or on request from the XBOX Insider team.

​
Retiring a flight

During XBOX Insider Program onboarding, you can specify a date/time to retire the flight. The date/time for the end of the flight can also be undefined. When a flight is retired:
  • The flight disappears from the XBOX Insider Hub.
  • No new users can register for the flight and receive an entitlement for the game/app.
  • Content such as announcements and surveys associated with the flight also disappear from the XBOX Insider Hub.
  • Users who previously registered for the flight don’t lose access to the game or app when the flight is retired in the XBOX Insider Hub. Retiring a flight only prevents new users from registering.

​
Deprecating a demo product

Users don’t lose access to separate demo products when flighting ends. To deprecate a demo product: Method 1 (Recommended)
  • Publish an update for the product that replaces the game code with a static slide and an upsell graphic with a link to the product or product preorder in the Store.
Method 2
  • Disable access to the product from the server side and include a splash screen with a notice letting users know that flighting has ended. This is only feasible for online-only titles where it’s possible to block access to the server.

​
Post-launch betas (content updates)

Whether or not a game was flighted before launch, you can always flight post-launch content updates via the XBOX Insider Program. Some common post-launch flighting scenarios include:
  • Public or community test realm
  • Studio testing prior to content update launch
  • Grant access to press or reviewers
  • Gather feedback on a content update or DLC
  • Test acquisition of a content update or DLC
Reach out to the XBOX Insider team for more information on post-release flighting.

​
Tips and best practices

  • Take precautions to prevent leaks. If you don’t want screenshots or videos of your title published to the internet, consider using legible watermarks that contain user Gamertags. Watermarks help you identify and remove the offending user from your flight. In addition, the XBOX Enforcement team can assist with additional actions if necessary, as covered by the XBOX Insider Program Terms of Use.
  • Provide guidance to flight participants. To get better feedback, tell participants what areas you want them to focus on in the initial announcement or communication.
  • Close the feedback loop. When the flight ends, let users know what you learned during flighting. Tell them about critical bug fixes or changes made due to feedback. This keeps the audience engaged and maintains interest in the flighted game/app.

​
See also

Last modified on September 28, 2026