Microsoft has announced that Xbox Live Gold is going away after two decades, and its replacement, Xbox Game Pass Core, will work a bit differently.
The original Xbox Live service launched in 2002, eventually transitioning to the tier-based membership we know with the launch of the Xbox 360 in 2005. Despite multiple new consoles released since then, Xbox Live, particularly the Xbox Live Gold tier, has remained a constant necessity for connecting to the internet with your Xbox console. However, Microsoft has some major changes for its online framework in the pipeline, one of which will be overhauling this long-standing service.
Today, Microsoft announced that it is formally retiring the Xbox Live Gold subscription and, in its place, is launching Xbox Game Pass Core, a new economy tier of the Game Pass service that doubles as a network subscription. This new service will be launched on September 14 of this year and is slated to cost $9.