Xbox Live Gold not needed for Free-To-Play MP, No Price Changes [2021-01-22]

[BRiT]

Very speculative I know,

But I wonder if they will announce another big acquisition on Monday? The timing of the Xbox live gold price increase on Friday and the earnings call on Tuesday leaves a very nice announcement sized hole on Monday.

They walked back the price increase so they are exactly the same and will be unlocking Free-To-Play games to no longer need Gold for online.

 

[Nisaaru]

This is getting ridiculous.

 

[BRiT]

This is getting ridiculous.

In a crazy good way you mean?

 

[cheapchips]

Honestly, this whole price increase feels like an exec squabble at MS. "Fine, do it, but I bet you it'll go down like a bucket of sick. If I'm right we have to roll it back and make f2p gold free"

 

[Deleted member 11852]

For free-to-play games, 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.

There isn't a lot of common sense or consistency with regards to online subscriptions across the three console platforms when it comes to F2P games. Generally, Sony don't require a PS+ subscription and have not for some years - I assume they are content to skim whatever MTX payments flow through PSN. Fortnite does not require a subscription on Switch either but Genshin Impact does. Why? Again, no sub on PS4.

Due to the lack of competition for F2P gamers I'm guessing it's not super profitable but it draws an uncomfortable comparison vis-a-vis value between folks who get to play online for "free" and those who have to pay a sub, particularly when the Fortnite is such a massive juggernaut. You could understand no charging for online if it was some niche indie game with a world-wide player base of 40,000.

 

[cheapchips]

Due to the lack of competition for F2P gamers I'm guessing it's not super profitable

It's very profitable. I forget if it's Sony or MS, but Fortnite is enough to warrant its own line on one of their financial reports.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

It's very profitable. I forget if it's Sony or MS, but Fortnite is enough to warrant its own line on one of their financial reports.

It can't be Microsoft because they don't publish specifics on Xbox at all. And I couldn't find any references to this in Sony's filings so uh... If you can't provide a link, it was probably a dream!

 

[cheapchips]

It can't be Microsoft because they don't publish specifics on Xbox at all. And I couldn't find any references to this in Sony's filings so uh... If you can't provide a link, it was probably a dream!

I definitely saw an article! But also can't find it. Wait, why am I in the street naked!?

 

[AzBat]

Crazy day eh?

The shit they got today was astronomical & warranted.

The quick reversal was glorious.

Phil responded to Parris Lilly on Twitter...

This was 100% the right thing to do by admitting a mistake and quickly correcting it plus removing Xbox Live Gold req for F2P good on the leadership
@Xbox
for listening to the community

https://twitter.com/x/status/1352845625658810370

Apologies for all the angst and emotion this caused today for our customers. As always, we appreciate the feedback. This is a good learning opportunity for us and we will learn from it.

Absolutely the right thing to do.

Now get rid of Gold entirely & move Games with Gold to Game Pass Ultimate like I have been suggesting. Gold needs to go the way of the Dodo.

Tommy McClain

 

[DuckThor Evil]

Goddammit, after the initial news I bought another 12 month live code for the future haha, well I guess I can still convert it later after my Game pass expires, that's late 2023 however... I was thinking that after the price hike, gold could have been converted to Ultimate at a good conversion ratio at any time.

 

[Jay]

I definitely saw an article! But also can't find it. Wait, why am I the street naked!?

Was MS.
Something on the lines of "Revenue has dropped due to the slow down of F2P (fortnight)"

It was such an obvious response that they was going to get from the price hike, I'm unsure how they could even claim they now listened.

Anyway it has made the XSS a very cheap F2P console, with option for GP.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Disappointing that they backtracked that fast, but I guess the backlash was kinda big. Well, stuff like that happens when you are not the market leader.

However, in that case they kinda lost more than gained - they could removed F2P from Gold and just gained good publicity, without getting bad publicity from increasing Gold prices. But they really should retire Xbox Live Gold in favor of GamePass. Probably would be good to pull the plug on 1$ conversion too.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

They walked back the price increase so they are exactly the same and will be unlocking Free-To-Play games to no longer need Gold for online.

And that what I do not understand is that why they need to increase the price to backtrack to removing F2P paywall. Probably would be better to just increase Gold price and that's it.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

It was such an obvious response that they was going to get from the price hike, I'm unsure how they could even claim they now listened.

Perhaps they didn't anticipate such a backlash what with people being preoccupied with other things, e.g. paying the rent, not dying etc.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

And now MS have rethought this, everybody wins. Microsoft have sold a bunch of advance Gold subscriptions due to people panic-buying at what was the lower price, sub prices are not increasing and folks wanting to play F2P without a sub get to do that.

Perfection.

 

[Jay]

It can't be Microsoft because they don't publish specifics on Xbox at all. And I couldn't find any references to this in Sony's filings so uh... If you can't provide a link, it was probably a dream!

Just watched Brad Sans and he also mentions about it in his video about this walk back.

Although I believe he made a mistake. My understanding is you don't need PS+ to play F2P on PS.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Although I believe he made a mistake. My understanding is you don't need PS+ to play F2P on PS.

I don't know if all F2P games don't require PS+ on PlayStation but certainly the big ones do not; Fortnite, Warframe, Genshin Impact etc. So yeah, he's completely wrong there. This is generally why I am not a fan of platform specific creators, they generally know their own platform well but have no idea what's going on with other platforms and often can't be bothered to just spend 30 seconds googling to ascertain facts.

 

[BRiT]

And that what I do not understand is that why they need to increase the price to backtrack to removing F2P paywall. Probably would be better to just increase Gold price and that's it.

They likely planned to remove Gold from F2P games in time for Halo Infinite, just not to announce this pre-planned move this early. They were kind of force to let that bit out now to generate positive spin and not just neutral backtrack spin.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

They likely planned to remove Gold from F2P games in time for Halo Infinite, just not to announce this pre-planned move this early. They were kind of force to let that bit out now to generate positive spin and not just neutral backtrack spin.

No, I mean I was fully expected from the dropping Gold for F2P or multiplayer eventually. What I do not understand is that move with the 2x times increase and then backpedal.
If it was Sony I could understand because they could get away with that, but MS? I could understand if they just increased the price or merged with GP basic + 1$ or something...But acting like this? Very perplexing?

 

[liams]

They walked back the price increase so they are exactly the same and will be unlocking Free-To-Play games to no longer need Gold for online.

I don't think they have anything setup for Monday.

in my defense I posted that before they reversed it, but as I said it was a long shot.