Microsoft Isn't Renaming Xbox Live and Has 'No Plans' To Discontinue Xbox Live Gold

Last month, Microsoft removed the option to purchase 12 months of Xbox Live Gold from the Microsoft Store, leading many to believe the company could be planning to phase out the service altogether with the launch of the Xbox Series X. When asked about the plans by The Verge, Microsoft said: "We have no plans to discontinue Xbox Live Gold at this time. It is an important part of gaming on Xbox today, and will continue to be in the future." The Verge's report also notes the company isn't planning to rename Xbox Live: Rumors of an Xbox Live rename appeared this week, after Microsoft announced changes to its services agreement. The software giant started referring to Xbox Live as the "Xbox online service," prompting some to assume Xbox Live was going away. "The update to 'Xbox online service' in the Microsoft Services Agreement refers to the underlying Xbox service that includes features like cross-saves and friend requests," says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. "This language update is intended to distinguish that underlying service, and the paid Xbox Live Gold subscription. There are no changes being made to the experience of the service or Xbox Live Gold."

While it's clear Xbox Live Gold isn't going away, Microsoft's statement doesn't mean the service won't be made free at some point in the future. Microsoft still requires Xbox One owners, and potentially Xbox Series X owners, to purchase an Xbox Live Gold subscription to play multiplayer games online. Windows 10 players of Xbox Live-enabled games do not require the same subscription, however. This split gets especially tricky for games like Halo Infinite, which Microsoft has promised will have a free-to-play multiplayer mode. If Microsoft does continue Xbox Live Gold as a paid service on Xbox consoles, then PC players will get totally free access to Halo Infinite and Xbox players will not.

Then why remove the 1 year subscription cards?

[the_skywise]

Is this some attempt to get everyone to register their credit cards for continual renewals?

Of course some of us remember that Microsoft 100% supported Blackbird... up until the day they didn't.

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[xgerrit]

If Microsoft were going to change how Xbox Live works and is paid for, they wouldn't want Sony to know the details until the very last minute, so it would be as difficult as possible for Sony to match. One of Microsoft's big advantages over Sony is that they have Azure for cloud infrastructure, so their cost of running Xbox Live is probably much lower.

On top of that, free-to-play games have already been undoing the concept of paid multiplayer, and Sony has a big social-network advantage coming from the PS4

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[the_skywise]

If that was true then why stop selling the subscription cards which is an instant tip-off that they play on going free?

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[xgerrit]

I don't know. I don't think the cards are disappearing because Xbox Live Gold is going free though. I think multiplayer will go free and Xbox Live Gold will be merged with Game Pass.

So maybe they ditched the cards now because they didn't expect that it would be "news"? Maybe because of consumer protection laws? Maybe because part of the plan for merging Game Pass and Gold is to get rid of yearly subscriptions, and every yearly subscription they sell now is money lost on monthly fees for the next year?

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[tlhIngan]

If that was true then why stop selling the subscription cards which is an instant tip-off that they play on going free?

Sony and Microsoft are playing chicken. Think of it right now - we don't know how much the PS5 or the XSX will sell for. Each one is waiting for the other to reveal the price.

Microsoft has more flexibility in pricing - if Sony decided to go really cheap, Microsoft might match and decide that Gold and Game Pass were now one and the same and multiplayer is free, thus offering a more valuable

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[rtb61]

MS suck in the retail market, they are customer abusive, arrogant and just lie all the time, people don't forget as easily as they used to, the internet remembers for them. After Windows anal probe 10 M$ as just losing in the retail market, the end user customer market, they are simply to arrogant and abusive and they know it, the hate runs pretty deep for them now, seriously.

They already stated they are focusing in on the business market and that means withdrawing from the retail market, they died in mobi

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[HP Hovercraft]

Stop being so dramatic. On the whole Win 10 turned it around in terms of stability and user experience. Every single company is violating privacy. If you're paranoid then use Tails or better yet air gap your system and live in the woods. I welcome the competition between XBOX Series X and PS5. I think both companies are aiming for difference subsectors within the console world. XBOX will be cross platform online gaming focused. MS said XBOX Series X won't get exclusives until two years in. Whereas PS5 will

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[scdeimos]

Hmm, because they charge more for month-to-month and 3-month subscriptions?

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[drinkypoo]

It would actually make sense if they were planning to give XBLG away for free. Taking away the yearly option means not having to do pro-rated refunds later.

Given that most game servers run on players' consoles, and all they do is [crappy] multiplayer matching, there's no good reason to charge for multiplayer beyond "people will pay". If they think people won't continue to pay, and they therefore need to make multiplayer free to compete with Sony, making XBLG free makes sense.

I presume they'd de-content it,

Too expensive

[fluffernutter]

I'd prefer to go back to the days where I have to enter the IP address rather than paying a monthly sub for Microsoft to do it for me. Thank god you don't need live to hook up your minecraft server yet.

Re: Too expensive

[fluffernutter]

what games can i play with a frend remotely for free?