Rumors: Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass Restructuring? [2020-07] *spawn*

[Rangers]

Not sure where to place this among the 65 threads, and hopefully it hasn't been posted elsewhere, but...

https://www.resetera.com/threads/ye...on-is-no-longer-available-on-xbox-com.249052/

Basically at MS.com you can now only buy a one or 3 month sub to Gold. You cannot buy a year like before. This suggest they will be doing away with Gold in some fashion this fall. Probably for some type of gamepass tier and free tier?

Normally I'd poo-poo this type of thing but in this case it seems clear there's likely to be smoke where there's fire.

However I am wary perhaps they put only incredibly basic online play for free, and then try to charge 9.99/month or something for Gamepass only, something like that where our net costs rise effectively.

Hopefully they put a good free option (if that is the case) and then work to entice us with a great value pay option out there.

The return of free online to PS/Xbox could be a sea change, though.

They probably ran a spreadsheet that said they can do fine providing a free tier and make it up with a loaded gamepass tier for pay.

 

[BRiT]

@Rangers likely none of that and entirely related to an issues with codes coming up as "expired" during redemption. All codes were removed from the Microsoft Rewards redemption listings because of this. Only recently have the 1 month and 3 month codes been re-added.

Here is but one of the many Reddit threads about it that I've seen in the past week or such.

From 7 days ago when some noticed the issue:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrosoftRewards/comments/hnyp0q

Where the 1 month and 3 month codes have returned:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrosoftRewards/comments/hrjhcp

 

[AzBat]

However I am wary perhaps they put only incredibly basic online play for free, and then try to charge 9.99/month or something for Gamepass only, something like that where our net costs rise effectively.

Game Pass for console has been $9.99/mo since it launched. I don't see that changing. Game Pass for PC launched at an intro rate of $4.99/mo, but the regular price is $9.99. Currently, it's back on sale for $4.99/mo. I could see that staying at the intro rate for a while longer. It will be interesting to see if xCloud is only available in the Ultimate package @ $14.99/mo.

Tommy McClain

 

[iroboto]

Rumours swirling around XBLive Gold removal. So perhaps no more paying for MP.

Update: Microsoft has provided TrueAchievements with a statement confirming that the removal of the 12-month Xbox Live Gold subscription was not an error.

https://www.trueachievements.com/n42488/xbox-live-gold-12-month-subscription

Falling in line with the 'discontinued' for X1X and XSAD

 

[BRiT]

Rumours swirling around XBLive Gold removal. So perhaps no more paying for MP.


https://www.trueachievements.com/n42488/xbox-live-gold-12-month-subscription

Falling in line with the 'discontinued' for X1X and XSAD

I'm still sticking to my original take. https://forum.beyond3d.com/posts/2140179/

They still have 1 month and 3 months available. No way would MS drop 800 million yearly revenue like that.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I can see Microsoft's might want to revamp some of their service structure, they have a lot of balls in the air and will want this to be as flexible as possible I'm sure. I.e. if Microsoft add xCloud 'free' to an existing subscription package, I'd want that package for less if I didn't use xCloud. Not many people like paying for what they don't use. Humans are a funny bunch.

 

[iroboto]

I'm still sticking to my original take. https://forum.beyond3d.com/posts/2140179/

They still have 1 month and 3 months available. No way would MS drop 800 million yearly revenue like that.

It may be necessarily to cannibalize their own product for better positioning of a new product.
Game pass will be forever limited because of Gold. Understanding that people don’t want to pay for too many subscriptions is exactly what hampers game pass. Coupled with the fact that I’d they sell a separate XCloud service that would have to include multiplayer but that means they would have to buy gold?

just too confusing. They are best focused on game pass and XCloud. Toss away gold. Lose the revenue and hope to gain it back through more users.
Not to mention it provides yet another leg up against Sony. Dramatically puts heavy pressure on them to give up revenue that they need. MS azure services already is paid for, so they are losing free revenue. But they are actually losing money on game pass if there aren’t enough subscribers there.

right now in many ways gold is subsidizing game pass. But if gold is removed more people will put that 60 a year to game pass which is 120 a year. Ideally they’d double up and gain more customers

 

[BRiT]

Assuming they do away with Xbox Live Gold ... Do they also do away with Games-with-Gold benefit going forward? Or is that an additional benefit of Game-Pass where you get 2-4 Free Games a month?

With Microsoft pushing onto other platforms and integration with iOS, Android, and Nintendo Switch, I do see it becomes more difficult to convey the message of what you need to pay for with "Xbox Live GOLD".

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I favour a pick'n'mix approach with benefits (lower cost) the more services you have on board. The more flexibility and control over service and cost you give people, you more you reduce the scope for complaint. It doesn't have to be complicated, if online pizza delivery can incentivise bundling different things together for savings then Microsoft surely can.

 

[mpg1]

So are they getting rid of the 12 month cards you can buy in stores?..

 

[iroboto]

Assuming they do away with Xbox Live Gold ... Do they also do away with Games-with-Gold benefit going forward? Or is that an additional benefit of Game-Pass where you get 2-4 Free Games a month?

With Microsoft pushing onto other platforms and integration with iOS, Android, and Nintendo Switch, I do see it becomes more difficult to convey the message of what you need to pay for with "Xbox Live GOLD".

You toss the games with gold. It works against game pass.
Once you own it you don’t need to keep subscribing. It’s the first thing I would remove if I were MS.

the main goals for MS game pass is to let people play everything and cycle it off game pass. Then if they still want to play it. They are going to buy it

 

[Rangers]

Hmmm...

Update: Microsoft has provided TrueAchievements with a statement confirming that the removal of the 12-month Xbox Live Gold subscription was not an error.

A Microsoft spokesperson said, "At this time, Xbox has decided to remove the 12 months Xbox Live Gold SKU from the Microsoft online Store. Customers can still sign up for a one month or three month Xbox Live Gold subscription online through the Microsoft Store." Unfortunately, the company did not specify the reason why it has decided to delist the 12-month option.

 

[Jay]

Once you own it you don’t need to keep subscribing. It’s the first thing I would remove if I were MS.

Not true, that's only the case for X360.
You may still get to keep them, but you loose access to them if you're not subscribed.

 

[BRiT]

I still stand by my initial take that they're just working through an issue. Here's the Microsoft support statement from last week on Reddit (that I already linked to):

I am grateful for your patience.

Let me take this opportunity to inform you that there was an issue on the Xbox Live Gold Subscription codes and we have refunded the 20,000 points to your account for that order. We will be temporarily removing the Xbox Live Gold Subscription from the Redeem page until we resolved the issue.

In addition, we have also added another 500 points to your account to make up for the inconvenience.

I hope I was able to clarify things and I appreciate your understanding on this.

 

[iroboto]

Not true, that's only the case for X360.
You may still get to keep them, but you loose access to them if you're not subscribed.

Thanks forgot about that. Better finish MGSV lol. It’s gonna go soon

 

[AzBat]

I'm with @iroboto on getting rid of Gold. It's been one of the stigmas compared to PSN that you still need Gold for free-to-play games. And a lot of people still ignorantly believe you need Gold to use Netflix & other apps. I love Games with Gold but it's time to move all-in with Game Pass as their only subscription service. Simplify the subscription options with just Game Pass & Game Pass Ultimate. All your Xbox Live Gold games for Xbox One can still play if you have a Game Pass subscription.

Personally I would want them to give us an option to make any Game Pass game "Gold". Maybe you get X amount Gold points a month for being a subscriber & then you choose whatever Game Pass game you want to spend those Gold points on & keep them Gold forever(provided you're a subscriber)? Big games require more points & smaller games require less. So you could use all your points on 1 big game or lots of smaller games. This would also allow you to save points & use them later if none of the games currently on the service are worth it to you. There's a real good opportunity here to really simply all of their subscriptions for next-gen.

Tommy McClain

 

[mpg1]

Forcing people to pay for multiplayer is the money maker. Highly skeptical they'd let it go free.

More presumably is they like to sell only one singular merged product (aka GamePass Ultimate) but can't without either A) being un-competitive with PS Plus pricing or B) losing a lot of revenue trying to remain competitive with PS Plus pricing

So they have to do the merger incrementally over time...

 

[Nisaaru]

I might have got Gamepass but not if I had to pay Gold/Ultimate for MP currently because the financial benefits with Gamepass late the life cycle aren't there for me. That probably changes with new games and XSX.

I'm not the player who tries out a lot games where the rent model might be attractive but I usually buy AAA games of interest.

 

[Rangers]

I still stand by my initial take that they're just working through an issue. Here's the Microsoft support statement from last week on Reddit (that I already linked to):

Probably so. Darn, that's not very exciting.

Why dont they just come out and say it's a technical issue and 1yr will be available again soon?

 

[eastmen]

I'm with @iroboto on getting rid of Gold. It's been one of the stigmas compared to PSN that you still need Gold for free-to-play games. And a lot of people still ignorantly believe you need Gold to use Netflix & other apps. I love Games with Gold but it's time to move all-in with Game Pass as their only subscription service. Simplify the subscription options with just Game Pass & Game Pass Ultimate. All your Xbox Live Gold games for Xbox One can still play if you have a Game Pass subscription.

Personally I would want them to give us an option to make any Game Pass game "Gold". Maybe you get X amount Gold points a month for being a subscriber & then you choose whatever Game Pass game you want to spend those Gold points on & keep them Gold forever(provided you're a subscriber)? Big games require more points & smaller games require less. So you could use all your points on 1 big game or lots of smaller games. This would also allow you to save points & use them later if none of the games currently on the service are worth it to you. There's a real good opportunity here to really simply all of their subscriptions for next-gen.

Tommy McClain

What if they strip all the cloud features like cloud save and maybe even broadcasting to other services unless your a gold member but regular multiplayer is free ?

I am still expecting a family plan to get announced soon