There are a lot of changes on the way for the Xbox fraternity. One of the major ones is that the franchise is going to bid adieu to Xbox Live Gold membership. The same will be replaced with the Xbox Game Pass Core, which will enter the market by September 2023.
The latest subscription tier will be available for Xbox Series S|X consoles for multiplayer games. The Xbox Game Pass Core will hit the market at the same price as the Xbox Live Gold – $9.99 for a month and $59.99 for a year.
What intrigues us the most is that the Xbox Game Pass Core will bundle up more benefits compared to the Gold edition. One of the most anticipated benefits is the inclusion of 25 games high-end Xbox games. Out of the 25, Xbox has also announced 19 games already, and the other six titles will be announced in the upcoming months. Moving further, have a look at the list of the 19 games announced so far:
- Dishonored 2
- Grounded
- Human Fall Flat
- Ori and The Will of the Wisps
- Descenders
- Fallout 76
- Halo 5: Guardians
- Inside
- Hellblade: Senua’s Office
- Fable Anniversary
- Gears 5
- Fallout 4
- The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited
- Psychonauts 2
- Forza Horizon 4
- Doom Eternal
- Halo Wars 2
- State of Decay 2
- Among Us
Most of the confirmed games have garnered a decent amount of love from the audience in the past. This step by Xbox will undoubtedly help Xbox in proving its relevance in the gaming market.
What Was the Need?
Here comes the biggest question, was the revamp necessary? The answer to it is the evergrowing popularity of PlayStation subscriptions. The Sony-backed gaming subscription is not in the mood to give any chance to Xbox to gain large traction in terms of consumers. The regular game catalog updates (that too, with the best ones) have made Sony stand at the top.
Nonetheless, this rework and introduction of the Xbox Game Pass Core is a reply to what Sony offers in the PlayStation Plus tier. We can clearly see that Xbox wants to take the battle to the pricing segment, too, as the latest subscription will be priced similarly to the Sony PlayStation Plus subscription. We agree that it will be pretty early to drop an opinion related to the future of the Xbox Game Pass Core. But one thing which we are sure of is that the Game Pass core will have a nail-biting encounter against the PlayStation Plus.
Transition from Xbox Live Gold to Xbox Game Pass Core
All the subscribers of Xbox Gold who have a running subscription are not supposed to worry, as their accounts will be migrated to the Game Pass Core with all new benefits. Moreover, all the subscribers will also get membership deals and discounts, which will probably skyrocket the number of subscribers.
It is being said that the Xbox Gold Live service will shut down starting from September 1. An official blog post by Xbox suggested that the Xbox Game Pass Core will make its debut on September 14, 2023. Nevertheless, all the games that an individual has redeemed as a part of the subscription will remain active.
Wrapping Up
While we also want to see Xbox changing the image of its baseline subscription eagerly, it cannot be denied that the franchise will have to put extra effort into doing the same. The reason behind the same is the tawdry games catalog of Xbox Live Gold in the past.
Until now, 19 games out of the 25 look like they’ll be able to hook the user. Apart from that, speculations are that Xbox will try to turn the tide with the remaining six games in the catalog. The journey of Xbox Game Pass Core is going to be an exciting one for sure.
For the latest in Microsoft’s gaming itinerary, check out our coverage of the recently announced Fable game!
