Xbox Live Gold Is Being Discontinued, Replaced by Game Pass Core
Microsoft, in the midst of its attempts to acquire Activision-Blizzard, have confirmed that Xbox Live Gold will be discontinued as of September 2023. It will be replaced by Xbox Game Pass Core, launching on Sept. 14.
In return, they’ll get “access to our advanced multiplayer network, a select collection of over 25 games to play with friends around the world, and exclusive member deals”.
They explained their decision to end the Xbox Live Gold service, saying: “With this evolution, we’re saying farewell to Games with Gold. We wanted to use this opportunity to re-imagine how to include content with this subscription. We found that the answer to the most compelling catalog was to leverage select titles from our Xbox Game Pass catalog.”
For current Xbox Live Gold members, they will automatically become Xbox Game Pass Core members on Sept.14. Games with Gold will come to an end on Sept. 1, 2023.
It’s all change at Microsoft, especially with the company’s efforts to purchase Activision-Blizzard still in-progress. They recently overcame aninitial injunction from the FTC, but still need to win their appeal against the UK CMA’s initial blocking of the deal. Following its victory over the injunction from the FTC, Microsoft agreed to a 10-year deal with PlayStation to continue bringing Call of Duty to Sony’s platform.
