Xbox Live Gold is no more. The online subscription service that has persisted for over two decades is now being phased out in favour of several different Game Pass tiers. What was once an unrivalled example of value in the video game space is deciding to cannibalise its own appeal with confusing tier options that lock out previously available features and restrict the selection of games which used to feel limitless. This new move doesn’t benefit anyone.
I’ll admit I’m in a privileged position as I’m regularly sent codes that keep my Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership ticking along, and thus renewing it myself won’t be necessary until 2025 at earliest. For average consumers though, many of them are now being presented with a variety of different options at varying price points when what we used to have was so much simpler. Right now I don’t get it.
Xbox Game Pass Core will run you $9.99 a month or $59.99 a year, much like the pricing of Xbox Live Gold. For this asking price you’ll immediately gain access to online features such as multiplayer and existing member benefits like digital discounts and unique freebies. But instead of the everchanging library available on Game Pass at the time of writing, you’ll now have the 25 following games instead:
- Among Us
- Descenders
- Dishonored 2
- Doom Eternal
- Fable Anniversary
- Fallout 4
- Fallout 76
- Forza Horizon 4
- Gears 5
- Grounded
- Halo 5: Guardians
- Halo Wars 2
- Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
- Human Fall Flat
- Inside
- Ori & The Will of the Wisps
- Psychonauts 2
- State of Decay 2
- The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited
It’s a solid selection of games, but I’d struggle to describe them as up to date or relevant for a service such as this. Halo 5: Guardians instead of Infinite? Forza Horizon 4 in place of 5? Fable Anniversary over any of its superior sequels? I understand how Microsoft is pitching this range of titles as a solid introduction to the world of Xbox for a casual audience, but it appears to be an inferior option that only exists to push us into more expensive tiers.
This becomes especially apparent when the Console and PC tiers - priced at $10.99 and $9.99 respectively - don’t include access to online multiplayer. Ultimate does, but this tier comes in at $16.99 and includes the entire Game Pass library alongside day one access to all future exclusives. Basically, it’s the tier you want, and the tier Microsoft is hopeful you will gravitate towards instead of its paltry Core offerings. It just feels weird to lock multiplayer into tiers that don’t include the latest games your audience would likely have an interest in. Even Halo: The Master Chief Collection is exempt, and Fallout 76 isn’t going to pull in a crowd.
Xbox has been going through a rough time lately with the underwhelming launches of games like Redfall and Halo Infinite, while its acquisition of Activision Blizzard is taking far longer to get over the finish line than Microsoft will have hoped. With Starfield on the horizon as the lone title it hopes will sell both consoles and Game Pass subscriptions, it feels silly to muddy waters in a change like this. Granted, it won’t come into effect until September 14, but gamers are going to start asking questions that Microsoft doesn’t have the answers to right now.
Game Pass was in need of simplification as the service landscape became more and more bloated, and this change achieves the opposite. Core is far from a good deal.