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Microsoft rebrands Xbox Game Pass, also more proof XBL is becoming free

BigLee74

Member
If xbox live gold goes away, what happens to all our Xbox one games redeemed on Games With Gold?

As it stands, you can only play them if you have Gold account, which is significantly cheaper than Gamepass Ultimate...
 

DaGwaphics

Member
If xbox live gold goes away, what happens to all our Xbox one games redeemed on Games With Gold?

As it stands, you can only play them if you have Gold account, which is significantly cheaper than Gamepass Ultimate...

I can't imagine they'd take these away. Probably either make GP a requirement to keep them or just convert them to standard purchases.
 

Sony

Nintendo
Intuitively I'd say I don't understand why MS would discontinue gold. But I guess they have the numbers to motivate this move.
 

TigerKnee

Member
If they make online multiplayer free, I will kick my own ass Fight Club style. My guess is that they will remove XBL but will roll the service into GP. F2P games will not require GP to play multiplayer. Would LOVE to be wrong but I just can’t fathom them giving up all that subscription money
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Gonna save themselves some money by effectively ending games with gold going forwards too. Going to be interesting to see how they handle existing users/legacy ownership, dunno if they can get away with simply saying that in x months time you will lose access.
 

CitizenX

Banned
If they make online multiplayer free, I will kick my own ass Fight Club style. My guess is that they will remove XBL but will roll the service into GP. F2P games will not require GP to play multiplayer. Would LOVE to be wrong but I just can’t fathom them giving up all that subscription money

Exact my thoughts, i thought they said they had 100 million gold subs at one time. Drop that service and roll it into GP with a $5 bump/ $20 mo. While that sounds like it will be a lot of $$$, and it is, they have 15 studios, and a lot of servers to upkeep. I expect them to go full publisher in less than a yr. Too much money not do so and their op. cost have risen a lot. It may say "free online" but its not.
 

teezzy

Banned
Now remove the Xbox app from PC, it's terrible, use something else.

Windows 10 also installs a bunch of Xbox branded auxiliary apps, like Xbox services and Xbox Game bar.

It's all the most useless crap. Few things more annoying than trying to turn off your controller and having all these nonsense widgets pop up when I hold down the home button.
 

McHuj

Member
If they’re going to make multiplier free, it’s because they think it will attract more users and more game pass subscribers.

They wouldn’t be doing this if they werent projecting their changes to be money makers in the long run.

It certainly would make Xbox a lot more attractive to me. I’d probably still pickup both systems, but I wouldn’t renew my PS Plus membership if I could play all the multiplayer shooters on Xbox without a gold subscription.
 

Rac3r

Member
No idea what to make of this. If it's totally free multiplayer and optional game pass then it's obviously a good deal for consumers. Seems like Microsoft is trying to push as many consumer-friendly options as possible, esp with Lockhart. But it also me think that the Series X is gonna be more expensive than we thought, unless Microsoft is willing to lose a big chunk of revenue all at once.

It's a good talking point for Xbox; but in theory, you can usually pick up a 12 month XBL/PSN subscription for like $30-$40 online (cheaper than buying a single game). I'd imagine they could reel in a bunch of casual gamers with this move alone though.
 

Chittagong

Gold Member
RIP simpler time with better games

938439_orig.jpg
 

oldergamer

Member
here's better they just convert everyone to gamepass, suddenly they have 30 million subscribers and everyone can just grab games they want to play
 

Flintty

Member
Now remove the Xbox app from PC, it's terrible, use something else.

Windows 10 also installs a bunch of Xbox branded auxiliary apps, like Xbox services and Xbox Game bar.

Yeah, it does come with a lot of guff, sadly. Though I do like the game clip function and how it ties in with my Xbox account.
 
Here is the plan. They can make like $5 a month off of xblg or like $10-$15 a month if they migrate everyone slowly to game pass. Free gold will be the carrot to get you playing and people will stay for gamepass. If even 30% or above of current gold subs convert to game pass it will quickly become far more profitable than charging for gold.
 

Thirty7ven

Banned
Here is the plan. They can make like $5 a month off of xblg or like $10-$15 a month if they migrate everyone slowly to game pass. Free gold will be the carrot to get you playing and people will stay for gamepass. If even 30% or above of current gold subs convert to game pass it will quickly become far more profitable than charging for gold.

But if online is free and F2P games are finally free to play why would those mainly interested in competitive online say “yeah sure, why not, I will spend an extra 60$/120$ a year for a service that doesn’t give me what I’m looking for because I support MS”???


here's better they just convert everyone to gamepass, suddenly they have 30 million subscribers and everyone can just grab games they want to play


And the plan is MS gives away Gamepass? You think everybody is on a 12 month sub or something?

This better happen because the takes are so out there, a lot of people will look dumb af.
 
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DavidGzz

Member
If they really drop Gold. They have to be downplaying how much GP makes them. Either that or subscriber numbers are skyrocketing. Covid is good for Game Pass it would seem.
 
It seem Xbox Brand is making all the moves lately wile Sony will likely follow along again like they did Paid Online why is the gaming brand that is in 3rd place leading the innovating charge wile the 1st place brand follow suit it weird really should be the other way around.
 
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Thirty7ven

Banned
It seem Xbox Brand is making all the moves lately wile Sony will likely follow along again like they did Paid Online why is the gaming brand that is in 3rd place leading the innovating charge wile the 1st place brand follow suit it weird really should be the other way around.

People play games not services.
 
I see this as further evidence that MS is "all in" on the subscription service model and has decreasing interest in consoles (except as a way to push subscriptions).

I doubt they will make XBL free. They are already investing/spending/losing untold millions on building the subscription-based future they envision. I would be astounded if they voluntarily gave up the millions (billions?) in revenue they get from XBL. Their bottom line would be a bloodbath.

Yeah, if it weren't for gold MS probably wouldn't even be in the console business anymore.
 
But if online is free and F2P games are finally free to play why would those mainly interested in competitive online say “yeah sure, why not, I will spend an extra 60$/120$ a year for a service that doesn’t give me what I’m looking for because I support MS”???

I suspect they would make the revenue back up through the increase in F2P in-game purchases. $5 a month is not hard to make back up if you let everyone into f2p economy w/o a paywall.
 
D

Deleted member 471617

Unconfirmed Member
I'm expecting Xbox Live Gold to be discontinued and eliminated when Xbox Series X/Series S launch in November with Microsoft/Spencer announcing it later this month at their 20/20 event.

Amazing value and consumer friendly moves being done by Microsoft/Spencer for one simple reason - gaming is going beyond just consoles but in order to do that, the restrictions and barriers need to be eliminated and one by one, they will be. Microsoft doesn't care if you play on console, PC or phone/tablet (via X-Cloud) and is going to have cross-platform play between all of these options but in order to do so, the console paywall for online multi-player needs to be eliminated.

For the tens of millions of gamers who play COD/BF/GTA 5/RDR 2 and whatever else online daily, weekly or monthly, being able to play them all without a paywall is going to be huge and transition a lot of PlayStation 4 owners to Xbox Series X/Series S because despite what people believe, the vast majority of the 120M console owners are NOT fanboys and will strictly go where not only the value is but what is best for them in regards to how they play their games online via co-op and/or multi-player.

I'm not an online gamer whatsoever as it's not my thing but this is going a paradigm shift for Microsoft and Xbox eco-system.

Wish it was November already!!!
 

Texas Pride

Banned
If MS is transitioning to full on services with Xbox or that's the future they see for the division dropping live makes business sense.
 

Carna

Banned
Microsoft has been making some good pro-consumer decisions lately, I wasn't interested in getting a new game console, but I'll think I'll pick up a Xbox series x sometime down the line.
 

ZehDon

Member
Dropping Xbox Live Gold and pushing Gamepass as the subscription service for customers to have makes sense - it opens up their ecosystem, gets people hooked on the "free games", and allows them to make more money from the microtransactions on the F2P games on their system. Gamepass has more inherent value to draw in subscriptions, and it eclipses the offerings made by anyone else in the space. It's a good play for competition reasons as well. It'll put pressure on Sony to drop paid online - and PS Plus brings in a good chunk of change for Sony, especially a few years ago when cash flow was an issue for the entire organisation, so they'll be reticent to do that.

Massive shake up if true, though. Free multiplayer is a massive draw - especially if Lockheart hits that rumoured USD$200.00. USD$260.00 for the average Joe to get their next-gen console and their next-gen Call of Duty, or Madden, or whatever, with multiplayer for the year? That's a stupidly good value proposition.
 

Infamy v1

Member
^ Lockhart will never be $199. The insane GPU, RDNA2 GPU and custom silicon extremely fast SSD can attest to that. Even $299 seems like a crazy deal for what you'd be getting.
 
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A lot of people have no idea what they're talking about, all I'm reading is a bunch of concern trolling fanatical theories.

Microsoft is separating Xbox from GamePass, xCloud and PC, that's all that's happening. They want to clearly define that Xbox is the console itself, their platform, the hardware. While these other things still fall under the general veil of their division they are in fact not Xbox.

PC is not Xbox, xCloud is running on Xbox but it is not Xbox, GamePass is not Xbox, it is a service for Xbox and PC.

Xbox is Xbox.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
^ Lockhart will never be $199. The insane GPU, RDNA2 GPU and custom silicon extremely fast SSD can attest to that. Even $299 seems like a crazy deal for what you'd be getting.
I think the last time a console launched at $200 was Gamecube almost 20 years ago. Even low powered Wii was $250.

Lockhart $300 sounds about right.
 

Omali

Member
I can definitely see both GOLD and PSN+ changing.

- Basic, All Multiplayer free .. NO Bonus
- Gold/Next Level ... monthly free games, Bigger Sale discount, Online Storage
- Gold PASS/PSNow PASS
R O F L I am never signing up after my 1 dollar deal expires ...

So going back to Sony's PSN system with the PS3 but with a new tier.
 

Mmnow

Member
I can definitely see both GOLD and PSN+ changing.

- Basic, All Multiplayer free .. NO Bonus
- Gold/Next Level ... monthly free games, Bigger Sale discount, Online Storage
- Gold PASS/PSNow PASS
R O F L I am never signing up after my 1 dollar deal expires ...

Xbox already has free online storage. It's a great little feature, and one that doesn't get talked about.
 

turtlepowa

Banned
That would hurt Sony more if they have to do the same. They have more than 40 million customers, we are talking about billions of revenue each year.
 

SaucyJack

Member
It seem Xbox Brand is making all the moves lately wile Sony will likely follow along again like they did Paid Online why is the gaming brand that is in 3rd place leading the innovating charge wile the 1st place brand follow suit it weird really should be the other way around.

Nah, not really. You’re just getting a bit giddy.

Notwithstanding that this is mostly supposition about what Microsoft are doing we really don’t know anything about Sony’s plans in this regard. Sony have a decent amount of wiggle room here, PS Plus + PS Now is cheaper than GPU so combining them would be an easy response. PS Now is technically similar to Gamepass + Xcloud. F2P multiplayer is already free on Playsyation and you don’t need plus to play PS Now games.
 

JoeDanny

Member
MS tearing down the multiplayer paywall is exactly the move they need to make to gain back the traction they lost from the Xbone's cataclysmic start. The biggest concern I've seen as an implication of such a move is that a huge revenue stream will disappear, but the beefing up of game pass' value proposition seems to be the solution to this problem. We'll have to wait and see what happens. Frankly I just want to know how much these consoles are even going to cost already!
 

Goalus

Member
MS will simply remove the paywall from F2P games just like every other company. Will keep online play fee.
Online MP will be completely free.

Bundling two services doesn’t make either one ”free.”
Why are you hoping that the obvious option (free online MP) will not become reality? (I know why.)

Also a simple measuring stick of confidence in the product, they have none.
Like Activision had zero confidence in CoD Warzone, suuuuure.
 
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