Microsoft helped innovate online multiplayer gaming for consoles with Xbox Live Gold, a subscription service that would go on to inspire Sony's PlayStation Plus program and Nintendo's Nintendo Switch Online. In exchange for a fee, Xbox Live Gold subscribers are able to play games online, talk to friends in party chat, take advantage of discounts, claim a fresh batch of free games every month, and enjoy a variety of other bonuses. Xbox Live Gold has been a staple of the Xbox brand for years, but it seems as though its days may be numbered.
According to reputable insider Jeff Grubb, Microsoft still plans on phasing out its Xbox Live Gold service eventually. Speaking on the GrubbSnax show (as reported by VGC), Grubb reiterated a claim he made last year, that Xbox Live Gold is going to be discontinued. "I've said that Xbox Live Gold is going to go away," Grubb said. "[...] 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.'"
Apparently Microsoft is looking to reach a certain number of Xbox Game Pass subscribers before it pulls the plug on Xbox Live Gold. Grubb believes that Xbox Live Gold will be discontinued when Game Pass reaches around 40-50 million subscribers, though that could possibly take years. Considering this, it may be quite some time before Microsoft finally decides to do away with its Xbox Live Gold program.
While fans should take this information with a grain of salt, as Microsoft itself has not actually said that it's getting rid of Xbox Live Gold, the writing does seem to be on the wall. The company has already started phasing out certain Xbox Live Gold perks, like when it decided to make free-to-play Xbox games completely free-to-play with no need to be signed up for the service. This means that the upcoming Halo Infinite multiplayer won't require an Xbox Live Gold subscription since it will be free-to-play, when that would have at one point been a big reason to sign up.
Microsoft has also rebranded Xbox Live to help distinguish it from the Xbox Live Gold program, referring to its online services as the Xbox network instead. This combined with the increasingly disappointing Xbox free Games with Gold offerings, and it seems fairly obvious that Microsoft is far more focused on getting more Xbox Game Pass subscribers than it is getting people to sign up for Xbox Live Gold.
Those who are ready to leave Xbox Live Gold behind can do so already by signing up for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. While it's slightly more expensive than a standard Xbox Game Pass subscription, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate lets players access all Game Pass games across consoles, Cloud, and PC, plus it comes with all the same benefits as an Xbox Live Gold subscription.
Source: GrubbSnax - Giant Bomb (via VGC)