Microsoft is Increasing the Price of Xbox Live Gold

A brand new post on Xbox Wire has unveiled plans to increase the cost of Xbox Live Gold, the online gaming service Microsoft has been using on Xbox platforms for over 18 years.

According to Microsoft, this is taking place in order to evaluate the current "value and pricing" of the services provided. As a result, Live Gold is going to jump up in price. However, if you're an existing Live Gold six-month or 12-month member, the price will continue to renew at the old price of $9.99 per month or $24.99 for three months.

For those who don't fall into this bracket, a one-month membership will now cost $10.99, three months is $29.99, and six months is $59.99 (or the local market equivalent). This means that the price of a one-month membership has increased by $1, while the price of three months is now $5 more.

The blog post also points out a notable trick for Xbox users: you can convert your existing Live Gold membership into Game Pass Ultimate. With this new price increase, the cost between the two services isn't as dramatic: Game Pass Ultimate still costs $14.99 per month and includes all the benefits of Live Gold as well as access to Microsoft's huge catalogue of downloadable and streamable games on both Xbox and PC.

This isn't the first time Microsoft has taken to change Xbox Live Gold recently: it decided to stop selling 12-month memberships on its platform in July of 2020. There has since been plenty of speculation about Game Pass becoming the primary focus for Xbox subscriptions going forward.

:story: IGN