Xbox multiplayer now free

[Blue Jam]

Finally:

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-04-21-microsoft-ditching-xbox-live-gold-requirements-for-free-to-play-multiplayer-from-today

Also 50 free to play games. Not AAA titles but Rocket League is in there. RIP Xbox Live Gold.

[ImmaculateClump]

Just for free to play games?
This isn't the console game changer I first thought when I saw the thread title!

[Huxleys Babkins]

Yes, Gold is only no longer a requirement for F2P games. You still need a Gold/Game Pass sub to keep playing everything else.

[BeardFaceMan]

Games With Gold has been dead since they introduced the Game Pass, I'm suprised they haven't done away with it altogether to just have the Game Pass and Ultimate Game Pass.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Games With Gold has been dead since they introduced the Game Pass, I'm suprised they haven't done away with it altogether to just have the Game Pass and Ultimate Game Pass.

In the scheme of things it's probably very low cost to keep running, compared to the damage it would do if they tried to take it away. Just letting it run on fumes is the right thing to do.

[BeardFaceMan]

In the scheme of things it's probably very low cost to keep running, compared to the damage it would do if they tried to take it away. Just letting it run on fumes is the right thing to do.

I just meant that they've more or less incorporated everything that was in Gold into the Game Pass, I thought by now it would all be morphed into one by now.

[Huxleys Babkins]

I just meant that they've more or less incorporated everything that was in Gold into the Game Pass, I thought by now it would all be morphed into one by now.

They tried to double the price of Gold in an attempt to force people onto Game Pass earlier in the year and it met a huge backlash and eventual climbdown, so whilst it's their long term-plan, it'll need a bit more carrot and far less stick.

[ImmaculateClump]

I remember when they tried to charge people for the privilege of playing their games online on pc, everyone just laughed in their face and refused to pay so they backed down, scrapped their horrible "Games for Windows Live" and refunded the chumps who had stumped up the cash for it.

It was a sad day when nintendo got greedy and jumped on the subscription fee bandwagon :(

I would love it if the fight did get dirty one year and microsoft or sony had the balls to undercut the competition by doing away with subscription fees.
Don't think it would ever happen unless things got really desperate, but that would be a huge game changer! Or "megaton" as I believe the arseholes say.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Sony makes about $4bn a year from PS+ and PSNow subscriptions, so I think we might be waiting a while for that.

[ImmaculateClump]

Yeah, I think it's an unspoken agreement that that'd be playing dirty.
They've all got a nice comfortable steady stream of cash coming in so long as nobody tries to spoil it for everyone by being a man of the people "for the players" hero.

My dad was paying for amazon prime for 4 years before he realised, must have gotten a free trial and forgotten about it.
To their credit, they refunded him, even though the daft sod had been enjoying the benefit of free next day deliveries for everything he ordered from there.

I wonder how much cash the big three have got rolling in from old guys who just played fifa or cod a few times with their mates or from mums who signed up little Alice to play animal crossing for a month before it lost it's charm and ended up in a drawer.

[Pinball]

To be fair, for what you get with Prime, and relatively speaking, £70 a year is a bargain.