Warns Insider: Hefty Xbox Live Gold/Game Pass Increase in Coming,
According to a report, Xbox Live Gold will soon be significantly more expensive.
Xbox insider Brad Sams states that Microsoft wants to copy Sony’sbook by combining its two subscription services. The result will be a higher monthly cost for Gold subscribers.
Sams says the plan is for Xbox Live Gold. This subscription service, which nets subscribers monthly free games and online multiplayer, won’t be available as a single subscription plan. The only way to obtain it is via Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
Xbox Live Gold costs $9.99/PS6.99 per month, and Game Pass Ultimate $14.99/PS10.99/. This is a significant price increase, even if the Game Pass Ultimate price remains unchanged.
Sams stated that Microsoft might be looking at ways to increase the cost of their services (Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass) to include Gold. This would mean that you will get Game Pass, Xbox Live Gold, and the only tier. It wouldn’t surprise me that Microsoft raises the base floor price for how much it will cost to join their service after Activision is sold.
This information should be taken with a big pinch of salt since Microsoft has not confirmed it.
In 2019, Microsoft began including Gold with Xbox Game Passsubscriptions via Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Some analysts believe that Microsoft has been trying to simplify the two services. In early 2021, Microsoft introduced – but then quickly reversed – an Xbox Live Gold price increase that effectively made Game Pass Ultimate more affordable. This led to speculation that Microsoft was trying to encourage Gold subscribers to upgrade to Game Pass Ultimate.
Microsoft did not immediately reverse its decision on the price rise, but it is easy to believe it will soon eliminate Xbox Live Gold and combine its benefits with Game Pass.
While getting all the benefits of Game Pass would take some of the pain out of a price increase, it is still true that there are Gold subscribers who don’t care about Game Pass. It’s not clear that forcing them to subscribe to Game Pass for their Gold to be kept would make them happy.
