22 Jan, 2021
0Microsoft is increasing the price of its Xbox Live Gold subscription, which Xbox gamers need in order to play online games. The monthly subscription will now cost $1 more for a total of $10.99, while the 3-month subscription is now $29.99, an increase of $5.
In July last year, the company scrapped a $59.99 subscription for Xbox Live Gold that gave you one year of access. The company is now bringing back that $60 subscription, but you now only get 6 months of Xbox Live Gold for the same amount, effectively doubling the yearly subscription cost compared to last year.
Those who have already purchased either a 6-month or a 12-month subscription will not see a price change, however, with the company noting that even if “you choose to renew your membership, it will renew at your current price.”
Only select markets will be targeted for the price hike, though the company didn’t give out an exact list of which territories are affected. If you live in one of those regions, though, the company will send you an email notification of the price change, and the price hike won’t go into effect for at least 45 days after you’ve received the message.
The only silver lining to the change is that the company is willing to offer current Xbox Live Gold users a free upgrade to Xbox Live Ultimate, which includes access to its Netflix-style library, called Game Pass, for both PCs and Xbox, as well as access to its cloud gaming platform, xCloud. You even get EA Play thrown in for free!
If you’d like to upgrade your Gold membership to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate your remaining Gold time will also convert directly to Ultimate (up to 36 months). For example, if you have 11 months of Xbox Live Gold now, and you upgrade to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, those 11 months convert to 11 months of Ultimate at no additional cost.
