Microsoft has changed course over its proposed price increases to Xbox Live Gold after fans expressed their displeasure.
Over the weekend, Microsoft announced that the price of Xbox Live Gold would increase by $1 for a one-month membership or $5 for a three-month membership (or the equivalent in local currency).
Today was not great. We always try to do our best for you and today we missed the mark.
— Xbox (@Xbox) January 23, 2021
We hear you, and we’re reversing our Xbox Live Gold pricing updates.
However, after incandescent fans made the company feel the full force of their fury across social media channels, Microsoft reversed their decision and has frozen the prices at their current level. On top of that, Microsoft even decided to remove the requirement of Xbox Live Gold membership that was previously necessary for free-to-play games. In a grovelling public statement, Microsoft wrote:
We messed up today and you were right to let us know. Connecting and playing with friends is a vital part of gaming and we failed to meet the expectations of players who count on it every day.
As you can imagine, the anger over this proposed price increase stems from the fact that it’s been conducted during the ongoing pandemic, a tine when people are already having to tighten the purse strings whilst gaming brings a modicum of relief against a bleak backdrop of events.
Still, it’s a nice turnaround to see the Games with Gold program lift its barriers to become free for all. Going forward, this will no doubt have a great deal of gamers wondering if PS Plus is worth its price of admission.
While the price of online play will continue to be debated amongst gamers, we’ve been very impressed by the quality of the new Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, which hold their own in the new console generation.
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