A new report from industry pundit Jeff Grubb has stated that Microsoft is still looking into dropping the Xbox Live Gold requirement for online multiplayer on its Xbox range of consoles. Heavily rumored for more than a year now, Grubb now claims that Microsoft is waiting until Xbox Game Pass hits a certain subscriber milestone before the company pulls the plug on Gold subscriptions.
"[Dropping Gold] might take years, because the focus right now still very much is getting Game Pass into a very healthy position," Grubb said on the latest episode of his premium podcast, GrubbSnax, on Giant Bomb. He explains that this year's E3 changed the perception for many around Game Pass. While users were previously skeptical of Microsoft's promises, this year's digital conference confirmed that nearly 30 new games will be playable on day one with a subscription. In his eyes, people are more willing to jump in, which may prod Microsoft into dropping Live Gold.
"So Microsoft's just kind of [keeping their] heads down on getting user acquisition," Grubb explains, "and that means 'Xbox Live will go away but we need to get to a certain threshold with Game Pass before we can make that choice and unplug that revenue source because we have enough coming from something else.'"
Related: Free-To-Play Games No Longer Need Xbox Live Gold As Of Today
If you're curious how many subscribers it will take, Grubb estimates that Microsoft wants between 40-50 million before it cuts ties with Live Gold. The last official number we've heard from Microsoft puts the service at 18 million subscribers, though other reports suggest anywhere between 20-23 million right before the company's E3 conference. That number may explode once Halo Infinite releases and will certainly grow after Starfield comes out in 2022.
"We'll see how it goes with Halo. If Halo is a big lightning rod for adoption for Game Pass then they'll know: 'Oh, and when Starfield comes that's going to be our next major lightning rod… For now, Xbox Live Gold is still sticking around, but it's still on the roadmap to go away for good," Grubb concludes.
As the future of online multiplayer continues to shift to free-to-play games, it would be wise for Microsoft to drop its paid requirement and focus more on a service that offers tangible benefits to its customers. Not everyone loves how Game Pass removes ownership of titles, but you can't beat its pricing for the sheer amount of games it offers. If Microsoft can leverage that with free online multiplayer, it may hit that 40 million user mark before too long.
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