Many were surprised when Microsoft mysteriously removed the option to buy 12-month Xbox Live Gold subscriptions earlier this month, which led to speculation that the company has different plans for the Xbox Live Gold subscription model moving forward - especially given the company's dedication to Xbox Game Pass, as highlighted by its recent Xbox Games Showcase event. Now it appears there is further evidence suggesting that Microsoft is phasing out its online multiplayer service altogether and will instead offer online multiplayer for free for the first time since the original Xbox.

Currently, Xbox Live Gold costs $9.99 per month and $19.99 quarterly, with the service previously costing $59.99 for a year. The service is also part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which costs $14.99 per month and comes with access to both the Xbox One and PC versions of Xbox Game Pass. Xbox Game Pass will also include access to Microsoft's cloud-gaming service xCloud when it launches this September. As recent rumors have claimed, however, this all seems likely to change in the very near future.

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VentureBeat reporter Jeff Grubb further hinted at the company's plans to phase out the online multiplayer subscription service, claiming that Microsoft's plans are now to make Xbox multiplayer completely free. In the thread, Grubb stated "Xbox Live Gold is going away and playing online multiplayer will be free. They will not force you into Ultimate to play online." Further clarifying his statement, he continued "Fortnite proved that having huge engagement can lead to even bigger returns. And getting rid of multiplayer pay wall can increase engagement."

Xbox Live Gold came into controversy during the peak of Fortnite's popularity as Microsoft required players to subscribe to its paid service in order to play, despite Fortnite's free-to-play nature. Players are still required to pay for Xbox Live Gold to access free-to-play titles such as Fortnite and Apex Legends, so Microsoft's decision to remove the service entirely will open up both paid and free-to-play titles to more players, especially with the increasing popularity of Game Pass. Furthermore, titles included with Games With Gold can also now be moved to Xbox Game Pass instead of being gated off to two separate subscriptions.

Many are intrigued to see how Sony will react to this change in Microsoft's online ecosystem, as at the beginning of this generation the company began requiring PlayStation Plus subscriptions to access most online titles on PlayStation 4. PlayStation currently offers two PlayStation 4 titles a month in comparison to Microsoft's four, although Sony has been experimenting with including bonus titles recently.

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