Microsoft Reportedly To Discontinue Xbox Live Gold In Game Pass Service

JAKARTA - Subscription services are an important aspect for the game industry today. With surprising speed, Xbox Game Pass continues to grow from the strengths that made Sony want to follow in its footsteps with the upcoming PlayStation Plus.

For example, it looks like Xbox Live Gold, the paid subscription required to play paid online multiplayer games on the Xbox console, will soon be permanently merged into Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Gold subscriptions are already part of the highest Game Pass tier, but according to journalist Brad Sams, Microsoft is currently considering discontinuing Xbox Live Gold entirely and offering it exclusively through Game Pass Ultimate. This means that if you want to play paid games online, you must subscribe to Game Pass.

This report has claimed many times over the past few years that Xbox Live Gold will be permanently discontinued, although Microsoft has previously said officially that they have no plans for such a change.

It was also recently reported that Microsoft is planning to launch a family plan for Xbox Game Pass subscriptions. It should be interesting to see if these rumored changes are merged and introduced together as part of an upcoming restructuring.

In January last year, Microsoft overturned a decision to increase the price of Xbox Live Gold in response to widespread backlash, and also confirmed that the Gold subscription requirement for free-to-play multiplayer games had been removed.