Earlier today Xbox announced that they were hiking the price of Xbox Live Gold and naturally gamers were pretty annoyed with this.
As of right now, they’ve reversed the decision announcing that there will no longer be a price hike to Xbox Live Gold subscription costs. The announcement was made in a blog post on the Xbox Wire blog. They’ve also gone a step further and made it that games such as Fortnite and Apex Legends will no longer require Xbox Live Gold in order to play online. This change will be made as soon as possible in the coming months.
This was a key difference between the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live with the former not requiring any subscription to play free to play games.
The full blog post reads:
“We messed up today and you were right to let us know. Connecting and playing with friends is a vital part of gaming and we failed to meet the expectations of players who count on it every day. As a result, we have decided not to change Xbox Live Gold pricing.
We’re turning this moment into an opportunity to bring Xbox Live more in line with how we see the player at the center of their experience. Free-to-play games will truly be free and you will no longer need an Xbox Live Gold membership to play those games on Xbox. We are working hard to deliver this change as soon as possible in the coming months.
If you are an Xbox Live Gold member already, you stay at your current price for renewal. New and existing members can continue to enjoy Xbox Live Gold for the same prices they pay today. In the US, $9.99 for 1-month, $24.99 for 3-months, $39.99 for 6-months and $59.99 for retail 12-months.
Thank you.”
It’s an extremely interesting development and definitley a call for the better. No doubt that this price hike probably wasn’t necessary and it’s great to see that free-to-play multiplayer games will now truly be free-to-play
