Highlights
- Microsoft has replaced Xbox Live Gold with Xbox Game Pass Core.
- Xbox Live Gold subscribers now have a special badge on their profiles commemorating the service's history, regardless of how long they were subscribed.
- Microsoft is now focusing solely on the different tiers of Game Pass.
Microsoft has recently added a special badge to some gamers’ profiles to commemorate Xbox Live Gold’s history. Xbox Live Gold was recently replaced by Xbox Game Pass Core, after being a popular service between 2002 and 2023.
After Xbox Game Pass Ultimate gained popularity, Xbox Live Gold started to feel like an obsolete service. Game Pass Ultimate allowed players to access all online features and gave them the same free games offered by Game with Gold. On top of that, it also offered a huge selection of games to play. Due to these changes in its strategy, Microsoft finally ended Xbox Live Gold this month after over 20 years of existence. However, this doesn’t mean that the classic subscription service needs to be forgotten.
This week, Microsoft added a badge to the profile of people who subscribed to the now-defunct Xbox Live Gold service. The medal has the name of the service and its duration: 2002-2023. This interesting detail was originally found out by Ray Cox, who uses the name Stallion83 online and is fairly famous among the Xbox community for being the first person to ever reach 1,000,000 Xbox Gamerscore points. While Stallion83 initially thought the badge showed how many years the gamer was a subscriber of the service, he corrected the information later, adding that the insignia was the same regardless of how long the person was a subscriber.
Xbox Live Gold has been replaced by Xbox Game Pass Core. This is a lighter, cheaper version of the famous Game Pass, and offers multiplayer access, as well as a list of games for $9.99 monthly (or $59.99 yearly). At the moment, 36 games are available on Game Pass Core, mixing a few AAA first-party titles, and some indies, and the list is expected to receive updates two or three times per year. Some examples include Celeste, Doom Eternal, Fallout 4, Gears 5, Stardew Valley, and Vampire Survivors. However, no free games are being given each month anymore, as the Games with Gold service has been canceled.
Now that Xbox Live Gold is no more, Microsoft will turn its focus solely to the different tiers of Game Pass. At the moment, the standard version of Xbox Game Pass has four games confirmed for the next two weeks: Payday 3, Cocoon, Gotham Knights, and The Lamplighter’s League. Apart from these titles, the Soulslike Lies of P and the party game Party Animals were just released, and the service’s most eagerly awaited offering of the year, Starfield, was out two weeks ago.