A recent change to the Xbox website hints at the possibility that Xbox Live Gold will be phased out and replaced with something entirely different in the coming months. This rumor is founded on the fact that fans can no longer buy year long subscriptions to Xbox Live Gold.
For a long time, Xbox Live Gold was the gold standard for a paid internet subscription. In the previous generation, the PS3 offered free but less secure internet services, while Xbox Live Gold users paid for security and better servers. Now, it looks as though Xbox Live Gold may be going away for good.
There are a couple reasons why Microsoft may be deciding to disable Xbox Live Gold yearly memberships and by extension Games With Gold, but all of them point to some major changes coming in the way that online play is handled for the console. Microsoft has yet to make an official statement about the change, however.
The first thing that jumps out is the three month limit. This indicates that Xbox Live Gold isn't going away completely just yet, but it's also worth noting where three months from today would land fans. The Xbox Series X is going to be releasing this holiday season, likely in November, and a three month subscription would get fans almost to that point. It could be that Xbox Live Gold is being phased out as it will be replaced for the launch of the Xbox Series X, but this is just speculation.
If it were to be replaced, the obvious answer is the Xbox Ultimate Game Pass. Since its inception, Xbox Live Gold has gotten a lot less attention, and for the most part it tends to make more sense to just skip past it and get the Ultimate Game Pass instead anyway. There are some that are hoping Xbox Live Gold will become a free service, but more likely than that, it will simply go away and the Ultimate Game Pass will be required to utilize online play. This theory has been met with mixed reception, however.
There are those that feel the price difference is negligible enough to where it doesn't really make a difference, while others are frustrated at the prospect of requiring the Game Pass to play online and having less options. Of course, there's always another possibility as well, it could just be an error on the website and Xbox Live Gold may be around to stay, only time will tell.