Xbox Live Gold is about to get significantly more expensive, according to a recent report that suggests the service is set to permanently merge with Xbox Game Pass.
Xbox insider Brad Sams says that Microsoft is looking to take a leaf out of Sony's book and combine its two subscription services - with the consequence being an increased monthly cost for Gold users.
Sams claims the plan is for Xbox Live Gold, the subscription service that nets users monthly free games and access to online multiplayer, will no longer be available as a singular subscription plan. Instead, the only way to get it will be via Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
Given that Xbox Live Gold currently costs $9.99/£6.99 a month and Game Pass Ultimate $14.99/£10.99/, that's a noticeable price hike - even assuming the Game Pass Ultimate price stays the same.
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"I've heard that Microsoft is contemplating figuring out how to raise the price of these services [Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass] to include Gold so that $15 per month is the new baseline, meaning you get Game Pass and you also get Xbox Live Gold, and that's the only tier," Sams explained. "It wouldn't surprise me if when Microsoft closes this acquisition of Activision, they actually raise that base floor-up price of how much it's going to cost to get into their service."
Take this with a huge pinch of salt for now, of course, as absolutely nothing has been confirmed by Microsoft.
Back in 2019 Microsoft started including Gold with Xbox Game Pass subscriptions via Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. It's been suggested by some analysts that Microsoft has been looking for a way to streamline the two different services for a while now. In early 2021 Microsoft announced - and then very quickly went back on - an Xbox Live Gold price hike that effectively made Game Pass Ultimate the cheaper option, leading to speculation that the company was actively trying to push Gold subscribers to make the upgrade to Game Pass Ultimate.
While Microsoft U-turned on that particular price increase almost immediately, it wouldn't be too hard to believe that it's ready to do away with Xbox Live Gold altogether and merge its benefits with Game Pass.
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Getting access to all the benefits of Game Pass would obviously take the sting out of an increased price for some users, but the fact remains that there are Gold subscribers who don't care about Game Pass. And I'm not sure flat-out forcing them into a Game Pass subscription to keep their Gold would go down brilliantly.