Starting today, an Xbox Live Gold membership will no longer be required to access the online multiplayer components of free-to-play games.
Microsoft announced the rollout of this change in an Xbox Wire post, making good on its promise in January to remove this paywall. At the time, Xbox received significant backlash for revealing plans to increase the cost of Xbox Live Gold, leading the company to backpedal and apologize.
Microsoft removing the Gold requirement to play free-to-play online games finally brings the company in line with PlayStation and Nintendo, whose respective PS Plus and Switch Online subscription services are only required for premium games’ online functionality. For a long time, Xbox gamers have been criticizing the Gold paywall for adding a cost to games that are supposed to be free, especially popular titles like Fortnite, Apex Legends and Call of Duty: Warzone.
Altogether, Microsoft’s Xbox Live Gold change applies to more than 50 free-to-play games. See the full list below:
- 3on3 FreeStyle
- Aegis Wing
- APB Reloaded
- Apex Legends
- Armored Warfare
- Battle Islands: Commanders
- Bless Unleashed
- Brawlhalla
- Call of Duty: Warzone
- Crackdown
- Crackdown 2
- Crimson Alliance
- Crossout
- CRSED: F.O.A.D.
- Darwin Project
- Dauntless
- DC Universe Online
- Dead or Alive 5 Last Round: Core Fighters
- Dead or Alive 6: Core Fighters
- Defiance 2050
- Destiny 2
- Doritos Crash Course
- Dungeon Defenders II
- Enlisted
- Eternal Card Game
- Family Game Night
- Fishing Planet
- Fortnite
- Galaxy Control: Arena
- Happy Wars
- Harm’s Way
- Hawken
- Hyper Scape
- Killer Instinct
- Korgan
- Minion Masters
- Neverwinter
- Outriders (Demo)
- Paladins
- Path of Exile
- Phantasy Star Online 2
- Phantom Dust
- Pinball FX2
- Prominence Poker
- Realm Royale
- Rec Room
- Resident Evil Revelations 2
- ROBLOX
- Rocket League
- Rogue Company
- Skyforge
- SMITE
- Spacelords
- Spellbreak
- Star Trek Online
- Techwars Global Conflict
- TERA
- The Four Kings Casino and Slots
- Too Human
- Trove
- Vigor
- War Thunder
- Warface
- Warframe
- World of Tanks
- World of Warships: Legends
- Yaris
Xbox Live Gold is still required for playing premium games online. In Canada, one-month Gold subscriptions cost $11.99, three months are priced at $29.99 and six months sets you back $44.99. However, Xbox Live Gold is also included with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which also offers Game Pass for Console, PC and Cloud (mobile streaming) as well as EA Play.
Image credit: Epic
Source: Xbox
