Microsoft is reportedly set to bid farewell to Xbox Live Gold, replacing it with another service.
It’s taking the Xbox Live Gold service, which lets you engage in online multiplayer, and replacing it with Xbox Game Pass Core. That means there’ll be no more Xbox Live Games With Gold but, instead Xbox Game Pass Core subscribers will get access to a library of 20+ Game Pass games.
As reported by Twitter games news wizard Wario64, the plan has been posted on South Korean online platform Naver. It was apparently originally featured on WindowsCentral, possibly in error, and then was swiftly removed.
But it hung around long enough for someone to grab a copy of the main image, outlining the new services. Assuming this leak is genuine, there’ll now be three Xbox Game Pass tiers, Xbox Game Pass Core, Xbox Game Pass Console, Xbox Game Pass PC and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
Xbox Live Gold subscriptions will become Xbox Game Pass core subscriptions, still costing $9.99 a month. September 1st is when the change-over happens.
Xbox Live Gold will apparently transition to Xbox Game Pass Core on Sept 1st
-includes online multiplayer and various benefits
-same price as XBLG
-Existing XBLG subscribers will convert to Core
-includes 25 Game Pass titles
-GWG offers will endhttps://t.co/tRZU5pKdsv pic.twitter.com/NMoQqmPqB4— Wario64 (@Wario64) July 17, 2023
Sony did something similar last year, ditching their PlayStation Network service, so this must be a similarly smart move on Microsoft’s part, right? Actually, no. We can see this really confusing people, new Xbox owners in particular.
Here’s how Sony’s PlayStation Plus service works. You have three tiers, PlayStation Plus Essential, PlayStation Plus Extra and PlayStation Plus Premium. They each have different benefits, but all let you play games online.
That’s not the case with this new service, if the leak is accurate. Of all the four services, only two let you play online. If you subscribe to Xbox Game Pass Console or PC, in order to play online you also have to subscribe to Xbox Game Pass Core. It’s not as clear as PlayStation Plus, that’s for sure.
Assuming this leak is indeed genuine, we’d expect Microsoft to officially announce the change some time this week.
