Microsoft removes Xbox Live Gold requirement for free-to-play games, offers early cancellation

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Microsoft officially unlocked multiplayer on free-to-play games for all users today, after announcing its intention to do so back in January. Before today, Microsoft was the only one of the major platform holders to still charge for online multiplayer in otherwise free games. There is a full list of titles available at the official Xbox blog, and more titles will be supported as they launch.

Additionally, Microsoft is offering a one-time offer for Xbox Live Gold members to cancel their subscription and receive a partial refund based on the number of days left, as long as they submit their request before June 1, 2021. More details are on their FAQ here.

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Armadillo

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Sony: Imma pretend I didn't see that, bruh.

Can't wait for sony to do this as well... :rofl2:

Man what a smart move. If Sony did this it would revive dead MMOs. Many people I know got a PS4 but don't have PSPlus and don't plan to get it...

Sony already do this. F2P titles don't need PS+.

Literally says in the topic as well "Microsoft was the only one of the major platform holders to still charge for online multiplayer in otherwise free games", but I guess people can't be bothered to read in their quest to be first to take a shot at whatever console.
 

RyRyIV

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Oh wow! That’s great to see. It always bugged me that I needed a Gold subscription on “free to play” games. I’ve moved on to PC so this comes a bit late for me, but still well done Microsoft!
 
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Uiaad

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I think what we are gonna see over the next few years is a shift away from the requirement to have a subscription for online play in general and more focus on providing libraries of games like GamePass and PSNow. I mean right now Microsoft is absolutely killing it with GamePass and with just a few changes Sony could easily create a service that is GamePass's equal, still a long way to go for Sony tho.
 
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Armadillo

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I think what we are gonna see over the next few years is a shift away from the requirement to have a subscription for online play in general and more focus on providing libraries of games like GamePass and PSNow. I mean right now Microsoft is absolutely killing it with GamePass and with just a few changes Sony could easily create a service that is GamePass's equal, still a long way to go for Sony tho.

At least for live, shift should have already happened, with Microsoft's current pc push, the current situation with Xbox live is absurd.

Game on pc, using xbox live = free.
Same game on Xbox = need gold.

Same game, same backend (xblive), same achievements , cross parties, everything, yet whether you pay or not, is decided by what hardware you have.

Shafting console users just because they can get away with it.
 

Uiaad

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At least for live, shift should have already happened, with Microsoft's current pc push, the current situation with Xbox live is absurd.

Game on pc, using xbox live = free.
Same game on Xbox = need gold.

Same game, same backend (xblive), same achievements , cross parties, everything, yet whether you pay or not, is decided by what hardware you have.

Shafting console users just because they can get away with it.

I agree that paying to play online shouldn't be a thing, but at least with Live there is kind of a justification for it. Back on the original Xbox, it was the wild west and running servers and paying for bandwidth was expensive in comparison to today and it was more of an experiment on if "online" was really viable on a console. It's nearly 20 years now since those days and over the next 5 - 10 I really do see these services completely coming to an end
 

Armadillo

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I agree that paying to play online shouldn't be a thing, but at least with Live there is kind of a justification for it. Back on the original Xbox, it was the wild west and running servers and paying for bandwidth was expensive in comparison to today and it was more of an experiment on if "online" was really viable on a console.

I always felt it was just shafting console users because they can, even back then. Original live was just a glorified matchmaking service, the actual games were p2p for the most part.

Sure there are/were costs to running the matchmaking, but at the same time that live was charging for p2p online, 8 player halo, I'm sitting on pc with 64 player battlefield 1942, on dedicated servers for no charge.

Maybe from a console only perspective it was nice, but I thought it was a con back then as well, and was shafting people for the sake of it.
 
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Uiaad

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I always felt it was just shafting console users because they can, even back then. Original live was just a glorified matchmaking service, the actual games were p2p for the most part.

Sure there are/were costs to running the matchmaking, but at the same time that live was charging for p2p online, 8 player halo, I'm sitting on pc with 64 player battlefield 1942, on dedicated servers for no charge.

Maybe from a console only perspective it was nice, but I thought it was a con back then as well, and was shafting people for the sake of it.

At the end of the day, we only have our selves to blame, like microtransactions if we had voted with our wallets and they wouldn't have to be so prevalent as they are today.
Look at PS+, launching 4 years after the PS3 and people just went with it. if people had said " blow this for a game of soldiers" from the start Sony would have soon backtracked it's not like + was baked into the PS3 from day 1
 

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It was pretty shitty to need to pay for that in the first place. Even Nintendo of all companies didn't charge you to play F2P games online. This is something I'd expect from Nintendo, since they're backwards as fuck when it comes to online, lol.


Now if only the big 3 can stop charging you money to play online in the first place, that'd be nice. But, fat chance, lol.
 

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