Free-to-play games on Xbox Live will not require paid subscriptions to Microsoft’s Xbox Live Gold programme anymore, the company announced through a new update on Thursday. The move, which was first announced in January, is being rolled out via the Xbox Alpha Insiders Update Preview programme that Microsoft started last night. The company said multiplayer free-to-play games, Looking 4 Groups and Party Chat on Xbox will no longer need subscriptions to Xbox Live Gold.
General availability of the update is still a few months away and it’s only available to a select group of Alpha Insiders. The company said it is still testing the changes “ahead of general availability”.
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This brings Microsoft at par with competition, including Nintendo and Sony, both of whom offer ways to access free-to-play multiplayer games without having to pay for their subscription service. Sony offers the PlayStation Network subscription service on the PlayStation console, while Nintendo offers a Switch Online programme in the portable switch console. Microsoft also rebranded the Xbox Live service recently, renaming it to “Xbox Network”.
The Xbox maker has drawn a lot of flak for restricting free-to-play games through its Xbox Live Gold programme. It had placed such restrictions since the programme was introduced, back when the Xbox 360 was the console it sold in the mainstream market.
Users have also been expecting Microsoft to phase out the Xbox Live Gold programme for a while now, following the announcement of the GamePass Ultimate service in 2019. The service combines aspects of the GamePass programme and Xbox Live Gold, and has been said to be the way most people will access games in future. In fact, critics have said that Microsoft’s Xbox Series S is meant specifically for users who will make use of the GamePass Ultimate service.
Microsoft recently improved its offerings on GamePass, via an acquisition of Zenimax Media, the company that owns games such as The Elder Scrolls series, Doom, Wolfenstein, Dishonored and more. All these games are available on GamePass now.
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