Rumor: Xbox Live Gold Will Soon Be Free

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Xbox Live Gold on Xbox One will soon be free, according to a new rumor. Recently, Microsoft ended Xbox Live Gold's yearly subscription option. And at the moment of publishing, it hasn't provided any explanation for why it has done this, suggesting there's something afoot involving Xbox Live Gold. On the back of this, prominent Xbox insider Klobrille has teased that it's not a matter of if, but when the paywall for Xbox Live Gold comes down.

Unfortunately, this is all the insider divulges. However, there's a chance we will hear more about this at Xbox's upcoming event this Thursday, though Microsoft did say last week the event would focus only on Xbox Series X and Xbox One games.

If the current paywall for Xbox Live Gold -- $60 for a year's worth of subscription -- comes down, it will be interesting to see if Microsoft attempts to subsidize this considerable revenue loss by driving Xbox users to its other products, such as Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Right now, Microsoft offers both Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. The two offers are largely identical in every regard beyond the fact that the latter comes bundled with Xbox Live Gold. For this -- and a few other smaller features -- Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers pay an extra $5 a month compared to vanilla Xbox Game Pass subscribers.

If the paywall of Xbox Live Gold comes down that also effectively removes the only difference between Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Game Ultimate. In other words, if Microsoft makes Xbox Live Gold free, it would have to provide Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers with something else to justify the increased price. Unless of course, Microsoft is planning to bury Xbox Live Gold behind Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, but I can't imagine this happening. Forcing your average Xbox user to pay an extra $10 a month and subscribe to Xbox Game Pass just to utilize Xbox Live Gold would not go down well.

That said, for now, everything here should be taken with a grain of salt. Nothing here is official. And at the moment, Microsoft has not commented on the claim, which has been floated around by a few other sources as well.

Posted: Jul 24, 2020 6:51 pm
Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/xbox-live-gold-free-rumor/

Comments

0101010101010101Posted: Thu. Jul 30, 2020

tO0t This would be awesome! If it's true then good on Microsoft.

I wish it would honestly make people pick xbox over sony

0101010101010101Posted: Wed. Jul 29, 2020

TimeSplitters
CtrlAltDelete There's honestly no way. You can't tell me those greedy pricks at Microsoft will ever make a play like this. No way fake news.

mark your words and I'll come back to you

lmao whatever you say big guy

EightThotzPosted: Sun. Jul 26, 2020

TimeSplitters
OGTrey079 Although it really should be free, you saw the difference in PS3's online quality vs the 360 when it came to paying vs free. However, I think we're at a point where it really wouldn't matter. The quality should be there regardless by now. The only reason I could see it being true is due the fact xbox is really struggling imo.

Microsoft is nowhere near struggling, bud. 1 trillion dollar net worth

He never said microsoft is struggling, he said xbox is struggling. Just because the overall parent organisation is doing well doesn't mean a sub sompany is achieving it's goals, nor does overall networth mean anything.

tO0tPosted: Sat. Jul 25, 2020

This would be awesome! If it's true then good on Microsoft.

TimeSplittersPosted: Sat. Jul 25, 2020

CtrlAltDelete There's honestly no way. You can't tell me those greedy pricks at Microsoft will ever make a play like this. No way fake news.

mark your words and I'll come back to you

TimeSplittersPosted: Sat. Jul 25, 2020

OGTrey079 Although it really should be free, you saw the difference in PS3's online quality vs the 360 when it came to paying vs free. However, I think we're at a point where it really wouldn't matter. The quality should be there regardless by now. The only reason I could see it being true is due the fact xbox is really struggling imo.

Microsoft is nowhere near struggling, bud. 1 trillion dollar net worth

extrememasters1Posted: Sat. Jul 25, 2020

If this were true they would have to convert every gold subscription to ultimate. Otherwise there would be a lot of pissed off people who essentially got robbed of there money.

OGTrey079Posted: Sat. Jul 25, 2020

Although it really should be free, you saw the difference in PS3's online quality vs the 360 when it came to paying vs free. However, I think we're at a point where it really wouldn't matter. The quality should be there regardless by now. The only reason I could see it being true is due the fact xbox is really struggling imo.

DanielPosted: Sat. Jul 25, 2020

How will this be true i know they make tonnes upon tonnes of money of everything else but 100,000 people at £50 a pop for a year is £5,000,000 Are they really going to turn that down and that's only 100,000 people there are 65 million people that play xbox, I think this is too good to be true.

YinPosted: Fri. Jul 24, 2020

I have a hard time believing this to be true. Game Pass is such a good deal that I would worry about how they would be making enough money to stay afloat if they go and do this too. Like, I understand Microsoft has so much money, but a company taking losses doesn't usually end well. And if they do plan on putting it in Game Pass Ultimate to force you to get that in order to get gold, that is absolutely be an issue.

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