The Xbox Live Gold service as we know it will be transitioning into a new name known as the ‘Xbox Game Pass Core Service’. This comes from a Korean website named Cafe Naver and they shared the information of what’s to come with this new service. It also looked like Windows Central had a post about it, but the page comes up not found.
After 21 years of the term Xbox Live, it’ll be eliminated into something new. Xbox Game Pass Core will begin on September 1, 2023 and to enjoy online multiplayer among other benefits you must subscribe to the Core service. The Core service is the same as Live Gold and will cost $9.99 per month or $59.99 for the year.
The other services include Console, PC and Ultimate. The Ultimate is what you get today with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $16.99 per month, but the Console and PC subscriptions come with different perks. If you subscribe to PC you get EA Play Membership on top of member deals & discounts, new games on day one and hundreds of high-quality games.
All existing live gold subscribers will be converted to core subscribers. Xbox Games with Gold will come to an end on September 1st after 10 years of serving free games to the community. The free games you previously acquired with Games with Gold will remain in your account.
Microsoft has yet to share anything official publicly and as always take this with a small grain of salt. The fact Windows Central had a link set means there could be something to this.
In other Xbox related news, Phil Spencer announced they’ve come to an agreement with Sony to bring Call of Duty to PlayStation for the next ten years. Xbox Games with Gold has been underwhelming over the last few years with July 2023 being the most recent with just two games.
What do you think about Xbox Game Pass Core Service?