Yep, it's this story again! You might remember all the rumours that were floating around last year about Microsoft potentially getting rid of Xbox Live Gold, and it's been claimed that's still the plan, albeit maybe not for a while.
According to industry reporter Jeff Grubb on the GrubbSnax podcast (as transcribed by VGC), dropping Xbox Live Gold is still part of the Xbox team's roadmap, but he doesn't know whether it's being actively talked about right now.
"I knew for a fact that they were going to make a change before Halo Infinite, and I thought at least it would be dropped for free-to-play games because they weren’t going to charge people to play Halo on Xbox when they weren’t charging you to play it on PC or whatever.
Then they decided to raise the price and it looked weird, right? Why would they do that if they were going to get rid of Xbox Live Gold?
I just wanted to reiterate, Xbox Live Gold is still on a board somewhere saying ‘this is going to go away at some point’. Whether or not they’re actively talking about it right now, I don’t know, but they still have it on a roadmap saying ‘Xbox Live Gold will be dropped at some point in the future’.”
Grubb went on to explain that the focus right now is getting Xbox Game Pass into a "healthy position", and so it could take years before Gold is dropped. He doesn't expect it'll be assessed until Game Pass is at least pushing 30 million subscribers, and thinks Gold probably won't go away until Game Pass is reaching around 40-50 million subs.
As he mentioned, Xbox has made some substantial changes to Gold over the past year, removing the ability to buy a year's subscription directly, taking away the Gold requirement for free-to-play games, and at one point attempting to increase its price, before quickly going back on the decision.
Do you think Microsoft will get rid of Xbox Live Gold? When will it happen? Tell us down below.
[source go.skimresources.com, via videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 36
Good! It's been filled with 80% dross for a while.
Concentrate on Game Pass and make online free.
The only difficulty is that GP Ultimate includes Gold, and for a lot of people that is the reason they have Ult. over Standard Game Pass.
They won't want to reduce the number of Ultimate subscribers back to GP Standard so perhaps they will wait until xCloud is more ready for the big time to fill the gap, or provide some other perk to take it's place.
@themightyant I reckon they will decrease the cost so people who still want the likes of titanfall 2 or any game on EA play will continue to have ultimate rather than lose the sales
I voted 2023, I think it will be with us for a short time yet.
The big question, if they can Gold, what happens to the games that we claimed?
I assume they will honour availability of them if you have a Gamepass sub, it's tricky as they aren't the same price, maybe more adjustment is required to get to the point of cancellation (yes, they've tried that already, but maybe a slower adjustment).
Many don't realize that there are a lot more Gold Members than actual Game Pass members. The need for GP is not present for many people as they have their own games/backlog to play. I have GP right now but only because of the promos they have done lately on it which came cheaper than Gold. Gold was all I needed with the amount of games I own. Hence I voted 2025+
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Gamepass is a great service, but punishing people for not having it is not good.
Unlike the original theories of Gold being dropped so online multiplayer for all games being free, after the Gold price hike attempt in January I think it's more likely Gold gets dropped resulting in Game Pass Ultimate being mandatory to play online for games that aren't free to play.
Makes sense.
If they want to truly unify Xbox as an eco-system as consoles and PC, then you can't be charging customers to play online on one but not the other.
At the same time, they won't want to throw a big revenue earner out the window unless they have a replacement making up for that loss of money.
Maybe by 2023.
Maybe drop the requirement for gold to use online multiplayer but keep the BC GwG (that we get to keep when our sub runs out) as a perk of GPU along with incorporating an additional service like the Ubsioft one or something to replace the benefits of gold
If there's anything to the rumours that Ubisoft+ Lite will be merging with Game Pass Ultimate hopefully they drop Gold to pay for it instead of increasing the cost of Game Pass Ultimate or adding another tier.
If they’re going to keep it around longer, it would make sense to actually drop the price of Gold and do away with the free games. If it’s games people want, that’s GamePass.
Honestly, Gold makes little to no sense next to the value of Game Pass. I realise some people will find this controversial, but it's the way I see it. No point in sticking with a service that generates costs and brings little value to both users and MS. Games with Gold has been a laughing stock for a good year now (if not more). Just drop GwG and focus on Game Pass. Maybe introduce a new tier for those who just want online functionality or make online free.
Long-overdue i think.
@The_New_Butler Exactly. If the last couple months have taught us anything, its that 99% of these insiders don't know crap. I'd say the rare occasions they end up being "right" is just pure dumb luck. We should collectively ignore them.
I actually think they should keep gold and just give 2 good games a month rather than 4 rubbish ones
would they make multiplayer free or just incorporate it into gamepass?
So long as multiplayer and streaming services are free for everyone, then be my guest. But dont force people to buy a more expensive version of gold, in gp, cause maybe they dont want the service. THAT will breed a lot of ill will, towards to what has been a great start, this gen.
A- this reeks of "insiders" clawing to stay relative after their miserable "leaks" have mostly turned out to be dry as dog s×××t. B- Probably a good idea to close gold and double down on Gamepass. C- I quite like the games for gold. I see them as extra bonuses to GP. D- I know the alphabet. E- comes after D. F...okay I'll stop
I don't care for Game Pass and don't need it. If the standard subscription model goes away, I'll most likely jump ship. I'm not paying extra for services I don't need.
I'm so glad I won't have to pay for Gold when I play Game Pass games on my 4k Switch Pro! Hopefully that deal with MS buying Sega goes through soon, they need something to counter Sony's buyout of BluePoint.
Or maybe, just maybe, these insiders can finally STFU instead of faking it the whole time.
@uptownsoul They could start flame wars about framerate measurements. Or post nudes.
Of Nintendo characters.
I reckon it will go by 2023 that's how I voted mainly cause they said they'll support last gen for 2 more years plus the app coming to the consoles so you can stream games which is part of XGP ultimate, so yea they'll go for the higher attachment rate which I reckon they'll reach then it would make sense.
The road map to removing XBL Gold. The real freedom day.
@NEStalgia You forgot about Mario's nipples...
Well, I'm happy for the GamePass crowd, if this is true, but I'm sad for myself. In my relatively busy life, where there's already VERY little time for gaming as it is, I most certainly don't have the time for the limited availability rent-a-thon that is GamePass.
I want to decide when and where I want to play what game, I do NOT want it to be dictated by some external calendar, and as such, I couldn't care less about GamePass if I tried. I just want my four monthly free games, and for the rest, I want to be completely freed of dumb@ss Microsoft executives that only make decisions catering to the in-crowd or the newer members.
I've been with Microsoft almost from the beginning, so where the hell is that bit of service and customer loyalty, then? /rant
Provided Grubby Jeff is right, of course, otherwise this comment was not made. No, really...
@ThanosReXXX One never forgets Mario's nipples. No matter how hard one tries...
@ThanosReXXX Ditto. Despite thinking GP is a terrific deal, it'd be years before I'd really be willing to subscribe for any length of time, since I'm a person who semi-regularly buys new games on other platforms and has a not insubstantial backlog.
If I pay for something like PS+ or these Xbox Gold Games, then, even if I don't play very many of them, they're still available in the future when I am interested in trying them out. With GP, though, if I sub and don't play a bunch of the games, then it's just wasted money. It forces my hand on what games I choose to play, and I'm not really down with that.
With that said, GP will be MUCH more attractive in the future, since first-party games are supposed to be permanently available. Imagine subbing in a few years and having access to Starfield, multiple DOOM games, Wolfenstein games, Ori games, etc.
@Ralizah Yeah, I've been subbing for years because I bought several years early on at discounts, but when my years if paid gold expired, I upgraded to ultimate because I get cloud, gold, and random games I want to try, but I don't really use it much. But once the big games are all on it like fh5, halo, etc, it's justified to pay the price over gold and just secure access to all the big games plus demoing stuff. I'm not getting Max value out of it, bit still good enough value.
My guess without any basis is that Xbox gold won’t go away but multiplayer will no longer be locked behind it.
It is most likely that eventually Xbox live goes away as a stand-alone service and simply gets merged into Game Pass Ultimate branding.
1) Multiplayer paywall is dropped
2) Xbox gold live games renamed Game Pass Ultimate Perks
3) Xbox gold discounts simply get renamed Game Pass Ultimate Discounts
Gold serves very little purpose these days and is just effectively a paywall to online play and one that makes little sense when on the PC side it's not required at all.
At least where I live the difference between Gold and ordinary Game Pass is like $2.. a month.. how can that be such a big deal? For Ultimate another $4.. but hey.. price rises on all products.. so does salary.. it’s called inflation.
My personal opinion, I really don’t care if they just shut gold down.
I wouldn't miss Games with Gold but if Game Pass was the only way to play online it would be a shame. Maybe a cheaper Switch Online style sub with Game Pass?
@Ralizah @NEStalgia Well, if they would sort of incorporate Games with Gold into GamePass, and for all I care rename it, like @Tharsman theorized, then I wouldn't mind, but removing it altogether and giving nothing in return to replace that for the people that supported you for all these years, that would be a real dick move, far as I'm concerned.
Forgot to mention in the previous comment that I also don't play online anymore, so the whole MMO stuff doesn't interest me either. When and if I play games, I want to chill, relax, hang on my couch and enjoy myself with a drink, a snack and a game. I don't care much for anonymous insane basement dwellers shouting "head shot" in my ears...
The very last game I actually did play online was Destiny 2, in co-op mode with one of my best friends who lives in another city, but other than that, my interest for it is below zero and I find it both annoying and worrisome that the focus has shifted so much more to online, while single player content either gets minimized or completely snowed under.
Either way, by stacking yearly subscriptions, I still got Xbox Live Gold until 2023, so we'll see what happens until or after then. Perhaps I'll buy another 12 months online to extend it into 2024...
@NEStalgia You shouldn't have mentioned Nintendo nude pics, though: it immediately kicked my sales & marketing brain in gear, and I thought: "pictures? No, MOVIES!"
I already came up with one title:
"The Leggings of Zelda - Skyward Wh... ", errr... I mean: Lady...
@ThanosReXXX I recommend logging in over at Push Square.... Sounds like you're ready for the switch: "muh single player! Xbox want to make everything online, I just want to buy my games, subscriptions are the devil, Xbox wants to take our games!"
Want a PS4? I've got a spare or two from launch. .
Technically I agree with you, and that's why I'm also still a Sony fan. But it's still beautiful irony
Edit: ROFL, I spit my coffee out with that one!
@NEStalgia Nah, man. I'll NEVER be ready to log in to PushSquare, much less buy a PlayStation. None of that kinda crap will be used in this household over here...
Glad I was able to amuse you. Hope you got the coffee stains out of whatever it landed on...
Those deals with gold been hitting sweet and it would be a real problem if i couldnt buy games on sale anymore so yeah i voted 2025
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...