Microsoft Doesn't Intend to Abandon Xbox Live Gold Subscription
Microsoft has cut off speculation by saying that there are currently no plans to abandon the requirement to pay for the Xbox Live Gold subscription for multiplayer play on consoles.
Recently, there has been speculation that Microsoft may abandon the Xbox Live Gold subscription, enabling us to play multiplayer on our consoles for free. Unfortunately, these hopes have turned out to be empty. The company issued a message informing that currently there are no plans to change the functioning of Xbox Live Gold. Thus, there is no chance of getting rid of subscription to enjoy multiplayer games.
Rumors of a possible change have arisen after the documentation has changed the term "Xbox Live" to "Xbox online service". However, as Microsoft explains, this was done to ensure that users do not confuse the paid Gold service with free network functionality, such as keeping saved game states in the cloud.
Some people also had some hopes because of the message that Halo Infinite's multiplayer mode would use the F2P model. Now, however, everything indicates that the project will be treated like other free-to-play games and playing it on consoles will require a Gold subscription.
Such a decision is not surprising, because console players are used to paying subscriptions by now. It is worth noting that Microsoft is currently advertising the Game Pass service, which in the Ultimate version includes not only access to both xbox and PC versions of the service, but also subscription to Xbox Live Gold, and in the future will also provide access to streaming in the Cloud Gaming project.
Maintaining a Gold subscription on consoles is controversial as PC players don't have to pay extra to play Sea of Thieves or Grounded. However, as we can see, Microsoft does not intend to fix this imbalance for now.
