It appears there could be some changes in the works for Microsoft’s Xbox Live Gold program, as the company has discontinued year-long subscription plans. As of now, only monthly and three-month Xbox Live Gold subscriptions are available from Microsoft’s website, and this change was not accidental.
As confirmed by Microsoft to True Achievements, the company has officially delisted the 12-month Xbox Live Gold plan. These were available for $60, while month-long plans are $10 and three-month plans are $25. Because of this, it will apparently cost about $100 to get a year of Xbox Live Gold now, which is just slightly less than a Game Pass Ultimate subscription that bundles a year of Xbox Live Gold with a year of Xbox Game Pass.
Xbox Game Pass has been one of the best values in gaming since its launch back in 2017, and it now receives all first-party Microsoft games on the same day as their official release. It will also include access to Project xCloud starting this fall, but Microsoft hadn’t made any indication it would be moving away from the Xbox Live Gold program. By increasing the price of the service, it could be encouraging more people to simply make the jump to Game Pass, instead.
An Xbox Live Gold subscription is necessary to play online games for Xbox One, as is PlayStation Plus on PS4. The service’s Games With Gold program also gives away four free games per month, including backward compatible Xbox 360 and original Xbox titles.
