Halo MP Is now Free to Play (Gaming)

by Vortech , A Fourth Wheel, Monday, August 03, 2020, 09:03 (1354 days ago) @ cheapLEY

There are rumors that MS might drop Gold altogether and just use Game Pass as their subscription draw. Given that all first party games will be on PC where online is free and also might have crossplay, there’s a slim chance it might be something they’ve thought about.

I can’t see them giving up that money though.

In more detail, the rumor is that the silver tier moves to include multiplayer gameplay but not the discounts or free games of Gold, and the gold tier is absorbed into gamepass ultimate. In some ways it makes a lot of sense with MS's attempt to unify gaming offerings across Xbox and Windows and it gives them a hammer to hit PSN with during a year of dual console launches after seeing with this generation what the long-term cost of being the also-ran is.

On the other hand, Money.
It is hard to see any idea that boils down to forgoing a long-existing and widely accepted recurring revenue stream (especially after seeing both of your competitors switch over to your paid way of running things) getting approved. Any time the internet Strats explaining why a company should really give them stuff for free, it's worth adding some salt.

I think chances are better than slim, though. I think it really would depend on what kind of revenue they see from XBLG, what the trend for those subscriptions has been like (probably decreasing, given that they lost out to the PS4 this generation and many XBOX "exclusives" are also available on PC where Xbox live multiplayer is free), what the uptake on GPUltimate has been like (probably high given all the deals they have been putting out there), and how much they think being able to say gaming is "free" on Xbox will draw over PS owners (feels like it would be effective marketing to me). Never underestimate how much Microsoft is willing to break something that is working or force something into where it does not fit if it will support their new all-in strategy (see, "Windows everywhere", or Internet Explorer is your file browser now, for example) and GamePass is CLEARLY their all-in strategy for this division.