Gaming company Xbox is still reportedly planning to drop Xbox Live Gold as a whole in the future, but it could take years as the company is trying to get Game Pass into a healthier place. Although Xbox Game Pass is performing exceedingly well for Microsoft, the company seemingly wants it to replace Xbox Live Gold at some point in the future once it hits an unknown milestone.
Rumors of Xbox Live Gold going away began last summer, but were quickly squashed by Microsoft. The service has been around for many years, only justifying its value more and more over the years by adding things like monthly free games. It's a major staple for Microsoft and one that clearly generates lots of money for the company, but now that it has added another premium subscription through Game Pass, it may become obsolete.
As reported by journalist Jeff Grubb on his GrubbSnax podcast (via VGC), Xbox is still looking to replace Xbox Live Gold with Xbox Game Pass at some point in the future. Grubb believes this would be around the time Xbox surpassed 40 - 50 million Game Pass subscribers and as of right now, it's estimated there's about 23 million Xbox Game Pass subscribers. With games like Halo Infinite on the way, there will be plenty of ways to boost the engagement of the service. It seems Microsoft is just trying to get comfortable with the service before it can justify pulling the cord on its most dependable revenue stream related to Xbox.
"I just wanted to reiterate, Xbox Live Gold is still on a board somewhere saying ‘this is going to go away at some point’. Whether or not they’re actively talking about it right now, I don’t know, but they still have it on a roadmap saying ‘Xbox Live Gold will be dropped at some point in the future."
Microsoft attempted to actually increase the price of Xbox Live Gold earlier this year, but fans instantly fought back against it. Before the changes had a chance to come into effect, Microsoft apologized and reversed the decision. It has made other efforts to improve its online services, however. There are now a number of free-to-play Xbox Live titles, such as Call of Duty: Warzone, that don't need Xbox Live Gold to play.
As the landscape for Xbox changes, it's likely there will be noteworthy shakeups. Halo Infinite will make its multiplayer mode entirely free-to-play when it launches this year, and then the campaign will be available for full price or through Xbox Game Pass. It seems as though Microsoft is already trying to seed the idea into its players and subconsciously prepare them for a different approach sometime later this generation. Of course, this is all rumor at the moment, but it does seem to align with Microsoft's overall philosophy for Xbox.