Jeff Grub says Xbox Live Gold and paying to play online is going away soon

D'Ghost said:
This doesn't make sense unless they've already decided internally to bow out of the hardware market sometime in the near future.

As that random person noted. Xbox Live is their tried and true moneymaker, not gamepass. No matter how much PR fluff they make about it.

But if you've had told me in 2012 that MS would be in such dire straits I wouldn't have believed you. That division has been managed extremely poorly. Peter Moore's baby is no more.
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bingo! i have been saying this for years. ms should put their entire ecosystem as a service to pc, sony and Nintendo. they can keep all their studios and continue to create games but you pay for gamepass to play them. want mp pay an additional $5-10 a month.
 
This is the dumbest rumor ever.

LOL @ Grub telling OTHER people THEY fundamentally misunderstand MS's strategy lol

Charging for XBL IS a fundamental aspect of MS's strategy.. could see them losing it for F2P games tho as it makes them look incredibly bad.
 
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Are we doing this again? I doubt MS would let go of all that easy money, players failed to reject paid online garbage when it was first introduced and got stuck to it for life.

Why would they go trough so much trouble and gamble so much just to substitute one sub for another less profitable one?

MS right now it the one that keeps F2P games behind a pay-wall, if anything they'll try to make you pay more for the online functionality by tying it to other services.
 
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Bernkastel said:
Somehow everything can be turned into "play the good guy" or "consumer friendly move" when convenient. It cant just be labelled just as PR, when it only benefits the consumers.
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Just like somehow anything the competition did recently can be called out as "anti consumer" after MS did it for years without any backlash. How convenient.

After 19 years of charging people for online, they now define the practice as unnaceptable. Are they going to refund everybody for all the wasted money over the years too?
 
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plasmawave said:
For full context.

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So, this is regarding F2P games only? So, Gold will stay for games like Battlefront or Battlefield?
 
Bernkastel said:
A lot of that money is used for the free games we download. In the grand of schemes of things it does not matter.
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But it does matter. Xbox Live Gold free-game offerings cycle faster and have been generally cheap buys compared to the expense they're incurring with Gamepass with a much bigger library of games. The margins are not comparable at all.

The grand scheme is volume sometime in 2025 with the eventual bait and switch margin play. But that volume is never going to be realized with the Xbox Hardware performing poorly in sales, with PS and Nintendo gating 200 million gamers, and Steam and the Epic Games store locking the rest on PC. People rather buy Grounded for $30 on Steam rather than get it for $1 on Gamepass.

I'm sure things look great in concept and on paper at MS's HQ but the reality is another.
 
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Looks like only for free 2 play games. And i think is the best move since F2p games were never behind the paywall on PlayStation.
 
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Bernkastel said:
A lot of that money is used for the free games we download. In the grand of schemes of things it does not matter.
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Looks like you took Jeff Grubb's tweet out of context. Deliberately or no, you missed the part where he talks about F2P games. How about to change the name of a thread?
 
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jimbojim said:
Looks like you took Jeff Grubb's tweet out of context. How about to change the name of a thread?
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There was nothing out of context about it. He said in the replies that gold will go away entirely. His tweet started with Halo Infinite multiplayer. Also, this thread is tagged "Rumour". That reply is being reported everywhere now.
 
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HaveButOneLife said:
Not when it funds their infrastructure, I agree.
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It ain't funding anything, never did. The price you pay for your game already covers any cost regarding that. Online on consoles was P2P most of the time anyway.

Paid online was always free money, PC online doesn't leave anything to be desired and it was always free.
 
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Bernkastel said:
There was nothing out of context about it. He said in the replies that gold will go away entirely. His tweet started with Halo Infinite multiplayer. Also, this thread is tagged "Rumour". That reply is being reported everywhere now.
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This is how it started

 
It makes sense, why else would they remove the 12 and 24 month options if they don't plan on killing Xbox live fees. And Xbox gamepass is their new "subscription" now so it's not as if they're going to lose money.

And to be clear, no, gamepass is not needed to play online.
 
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Personally I fail to see how MS give up such a huge revenue stream. Bonkers strategy if its true. Unless optional features like messaging and voice chat are then rolled in with GP, xCloud and others?
 
AmorousBiscuit said:
Personally I fail to see how MS give up such a huge revenue stream. Bonkers strategy if its true. Unless optional features like messaging and voice chat are then rolled in with GP, xCloud and others?
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Because a lot of their customers will be on devices other than Xbox, like PC. On PC you don't have to pay for Xbox live to play online. But you still have to pay for Game Pass. Game Pass just has more potential to grow than Xbox live does at this point
 
Jimbo, Bern is right here. If there is any confusion, Grubb can clear it up. He's a journalist and knows exactly the meaning of words when he wrote that. If he isn't trading on fluff to attract attention he will clarify soon. There is obviously the play where he plays stupid later on when proven wrong, or when its proven that his info was a half-truth. Whatever.
 
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VincentMatts said:
Because a lot of their customers will be on devices other than Xbox, like PC. On PC you don't have to pay for Xbox live to play online. But you still have to pay for Game Pass. Game Pass just has more potential to grow than Xbox live does at this point
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The people looking to get into the ecosystem are less likely to invest if they feel like they are getting nickled and dimed as well.
 
I'll believe it when I see it but if it happens then it would be great. Then the next stage would be to force Sony and Nintendo to get rid of the stupid online paywall.
 
VincentMatts said:
It makes sense, why else would they remove the 12 and 24 month options if they don't plan on killing Xbox live fees. And Xbox gamepass is their new "subscription" now so it's not as if they're going to lose money.

And to be clear, no, gamepass is not needed to play online.
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Because they want people paying more per month...

Literally the opposite of XBL Gold going away.. they want to make more money on it by killing off the cheaper subs.
 
So this rumor was around before the Microsoft show and I find it odd that MS made sure to put the message up that online games require gold in multiple places for games that won't be out for a while. Why would they waste their own time and confuse the messaging like that?
 
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VincentMatts said:
Because a lot of their customers will be on devices other than Xbox, like PC. On PC you don't have to pay for Xbox live to play online. But you still have to pay for Game Pass. Game Pass just has more potential to grow than Xbox live does at this point
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Yeah I can see that for sure. It just seems weird that they'd be so willing to cut off such a massive guaranteed source of income. The numbers for Game Pass must be incredibly positive if they're willing to make this move, and I wholeheartedly welcome it. Much more willing to pay for Game Pass than I am for online play.

Smart "hearts and minds move" imo.
 
Would be a dumb move from their perspective. If they make it free and Sony won't stop charging, that won't make a dent in sales.
 
AmorousBiscuit said:
Yeah I can see that for sure. It just seems weird that they'd be so willing to cut off such a massive guaranteed source of income. The numbers for Game Pass must be incredibly positive if they're willing to make this move, and I wholeheartedly welcome it. Much more willing to pay for Game Pass than I am for online play.

Smart "hearts and minds move" imo.
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I think they know that Xbox live isn't going to grow at this point, but game pass will. So game pass can offset the Xbox live costs eventually. And not only that, but it's another proconsumer move since your competition will still charge for online play. It's a short term loss for a long-term gain.
 
kingpotato said:
So this rumor was around before the Microsoft show and I find it odd that MS made sure to put the message up that online games require gold in multiple places for games that won't be out for a while. Why would they waste their own time and confuse the messaging like that?
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They might not have decided by the time their trailers were done.
 
Bernkastel said:
Previously Klobrille also said that Gold going away is not a question of "if" but "when".
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That kid has no credibility. Moreover there is a big stretch in equating Gold going away to meaning the end of online gating. Gold and Gamepass can be merged, and Gamepass thus becomes the gate to online play on consoles. MS can cut free to play games and that still wouldn't cut off gating online play. That would simply bring them up to par with Playstation Plus in that regard. Doesn't matter that the "Gold" name isn't in use anymore.
 
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D'Ghost said:
That kid has no credibility. Moreover there is a big stretch in equating Gold going away to meaning the end of online gating. Gold and Gamepass can be merged, and Gamepass becoming the gate to online play on consoles. They can cut free to play games and that still wouldn't cut off gating online play. That would simply bring them up to par with Playstation Plus in that regard. Doesn't matter that the "Gold" name isn't in use anymore.
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The more logical thing is they're going to focus on GamePass and get people in their ecosystem with free online play. Especially with games being crossplay across the PC and Xbox, it doesn't make sense to force one side of that into a paywall. So Live is going away.
 
jimbojim said:
Klob said a lot of things. Like Crackdown 3 will be a hit and Forza Horizon 4 will be in Japan
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D'Ghost said:
That kid has no credibility. Moreover there is a big stretch in equating Gold going away to meaning the end of online gating. Gold and Gamepass can be merged, and Gamepass becoming the gate to online play on consoles. They can cut free to play games and that still wouldn't cut off gating online play. That would simply bring them up to par with Playstation Plus in that regard. Doesn't matter that the "Gold" name isn't in use anymore.
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Klob was one who leaked the acquisition of Ninja Theory, Playground Games and Obsidian. Also,

 
ManaByte said:
The more logical thing is they're going to focus on GamePass and get people in their ecosystem with free online play. Especially with games being crossplay across the PC and Xbox, it doesn't make sense to force one side of that into a paywall. So Live is going away.
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Agreed, they are going to have one subscription. I'm expecting $15/month.
 
No company in today's market will give up subscription revenue without a plan to replicate in some other way. The idea that MS' strategy needs yet another loss leader to get people playing is nonsensical IMO.
 
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