Last week, we found out that Halo Infinite’s multiplayer would be free for all players. Just like with Activision and Warzone, Microsoft must have figured that making the multiplayer component of their game free-to-play would be a great way to get a huge playerbase right away, and a great way to get a ton of microtransaction fees.
But there’s no such thing as free multiplayer on Xbox–you have to pay for an Xbox Live Gold subscription in order to play anything online, just the same as you need to pay for PlayStation Plus or Nintendo Switch Online.
Nevermind the fact you don’t have to pay jack on PC or mobile–consoles are special things where online multiplayer is a privilege you gotta shell out for.
It seemed like Microsoft was reconsidering that business model by making Halo free to play. Another big hint seemed to come in the recent and inexplicable decision to get rid of the 12-month subscription purchase on the Xbox store. You can still buy 1-month or 3-month subscriptions, but the 12-month cards were all gone.
And on top of everything, Microsoft even changed their service agreement to refer to Xbox Live as “Xbox online services,” possibly indicating a brand change that might presage the removal of Xbox Live altogether.
Sadly, Microsoft has not decided to get rid of Xbox Live. In a statement made to The Verge, Microsoft didn’t say why they got rid of 12-month Xbox Live subscriptions, but they did say that service agreement update was just to distinguish between free features like cross-save and friend lists versus the paid features you get with Xbox Live Gold.
“There are no changes being made to the experience of the service or Xbox Live Gold,” the representative said. That means you’ll almost certainly need to pay for Gold to play Halo Infinite online, even if you get the free version.
Or you could just buy it on PC and not have to pay for Xbox Live. Just a thought.
Source: The Verge
