An insider has revealed Microsoft’s plans to shut down the Xbox Live Gold subscription service. The main focus will be on Game Pass. Journalist Jeff Grubb spoke about this on on his GrubbSnax show. (Source VGC)
I just wanted to reiterate, Xbox Live Gold is still on a board somewhere saying ‘this is going to go away at some point’.” He added “Whether or not they’re actively talking about it right now, I don’t know, but they still have it on a roadmap saying ‘Xbox Live Gold will be dropped at some point in the future’.
According to Jeff Grubb, Xbox Live Gold is still on the road map to go away in the future. They however need to reach a certain Xbox Game Pass milestone first #Xboxhttps://t.co/eEGvNWHIbt pic.twitter.com/i7FqjJADsg
— JayWood2010 (@JayWood2010) July 9, 2021
Xbox Live Gold is an Xbox Network service offering a couple of free titles every month along with free access to games that are not released yet. With this subscription, a household with Xbox One console can play a multiplayer game with their own accounts. The premium online service has been available for some time. Though there have been talks that it would stop receiving support from Microsoft and the tech giant is planning to shut it down.
Although these are rumors, it makes sense as Xbox Game Pass has become a massive service worldwide. It offers some of the best titles in the world of video games. Now with the acquisition of ZeniMax and Bethesda, Microsoft is planning to provides Bethesda’s brilliant IPs in the future.
The company is also keen on releasing new games on their launch day to make Game Pass an essential subscription service. Xbox Live Gold, on the other hand, offers only four Games with Gold in July 2021. The games are Planet Alpha, Rock of Ages 3: Make and Break, Conker: Live and Reloaded and Midway Arcade Origins. If we compare the two services, Game Pass is a much better choice with its always-expanding game library with wonderful games to play for a month.
Xbox Game Pass Has More Than 23 Million Subscribers
According to the reports, Microsoft is planning to shut down Live Gold when the subscribers of Game Pass reach half a hundred million. The current subscriber number of Microsoft’s gaming-friendly service is about 24 million as of July 2021.
Now that there are more than 30 games slated to launch on Xbox Game Pass, the future of the service seems very bright. This, of course, gives another reason to discontinue Live Gold and use the sources for Game Pass.