Poll: Xbox Live Gold Members, Are You Excited For Game Pass Core?

What are these Xbox Live Gold Members you speak of? 🤣😂 I thought they went the way of the Dodo years ago

I think I can speak for all the posters to follow. We are BEYOND excited. Like, "excited" doesn't begin to capture the emotion surrounding Game Pass Core.

seems like xbox getting rdy for price hikes imo.

I would have preferred GWG to have been brought on par with Sony's essential tier offerings rather than being switched to a slowly changing list of subscription titles. It seems like a downgrade to me.

As for if the service is called GP Core or XBL Gold I have no particular preference.

It was time to o end Gold not because of an arbitrary name but because of its paid online status.
Gamepass Core not only doesn't solve that, it's going to harm actual Gamepass via confusion because now you have an inferior product with the Gamepass name on the market.
Just have one subscription with the full Gamepass catalogue, paid online and have it be more expensive.
Terrible decision.

Less games? No thank you. I usually suscribed to Ultimate so no.

I’ll take a rotating group of 25 quality games over 2 crappy ones a month any day of the week.
I can’t remember the last time I actually claimed a gwg game.

If you're subbing to Ultimate, you're now just paying double the price for online. Even if all 24 games you got in a year sucked, you were matter-of-fact getting more before.

I think core is misleading, because game pass console has no online multiplayer. I believe that everything that is in a 'core' should be available in the upgraded plans. I wasnt aware of the fact that the currenr gamepass plan doesnt have online multiplayer either because I have ultimate. That was a little confusing and shocking to be honest.

Excited is this a joke 🤣

Given how terrible GWG has been for the last few years it was time for Microsoft to take the dog out and shoot it.

I would have however liked to have seen streaming added across every tier for the games available. Microsoft claimed during the Activision case that hardly anyone uses it so maybe it’s time to widen its appeal?

I'm only disappointed the whole concept of the console luxury tax to play online still being a thing. It seems a better idea than GWG. But it is ultimately meaningless to me.

@Krysus pay to play online should have been gone with the new consoles.

@shoeses the maths on this doesn't check out at all.

This is a step down.

Core is just “okay” as a basic entry point for NEW subscribers, but all us loyal Game Pass Ultimate subscribers are losing out.

We now get 24 games LESS per year.

PS+ has been giving me amazing games almost every month for years.

I wanted Microsoft to raise its game and match what Sony was doing. Instead they are taking away games.

So I’m not happy with that.

I will miss Games with Gold. I think Core could have been in addition to it. And I think it’s sad if Xbox fans accept this as a good thing because “GWG sucks so why bother”. That’s such a lame excuse.

The fans should expect better and Microsoft should want to deliver better. We know they have enough money to be better.

@sixrings I totally agree. Oddly tho, I really thought Xbox would be the one to dump the paywall requirement with the ABK acquisition. This puts Sony in a great position to drop it if need be and steal back any losses to GamePass subs.

What's better, having games given to you to play through a subscription and once it runs out you can't play them anymore. Or GWG giving you 2 games for free each month to keep forever. Honestly the line up of games has been substantially better for PlayStation. Glad they're killing off gold. But just a question though,(will I still be able to convert GP CORE - to ultimate GP for Cheap. We'll just have to wait and see

This new plan is perfect for me. I'm not a huge gamer but took Microsoft on their offer of converting gold to ultimate at 1:1 ratio a year ago.

It's a great service but I only get 1 or 2 new games per year so it's not worth it for me. I don't really try much new stuff, it's sad to say but I know what I want to play.

My plan is to play most multiplayer games on PC and have Ultimate for about half the year.

It doesn't really count as losing 24 games per year if virtually nobody was playing them anyway imo 🤷‍♂️

Quality over quantity every time, this new deal is much better

I doubt they'll replace GWG with anything, but I think a fair trade off would be giving people with Ultimate some kind of voucher or credit system for games & DLCs of games on Game Pass. Have it apply to games under a certain price and or a certain age. Let the users keep 360 & OG Xbox games and DLCs, but have Xbox One & Series games need at least a Game Pass Core subscription to access them, just like GWG did. They loved to say 'over $40 in value' for the crappy GWG games, well give me a similar value for things I want with Game Pass.

@sixrings @Krysus MS would be losing to much money getting rid of paid online. Their entire business model is subscription services, and paid online is the only thing bring in constant income cause their console and actual software sales are terrible.

The best option would be to have the core collection and in addition introduce "pseudo-games-with-gold": Pick two good-enough games out of the Game Pass Console collection every month and add them to Game Pass Core collection. And remove them after a year.

This solution would still give customers two new games to play every month like with Live Gold but they would be subject of removal like with Game Pass.

Game Pass Core is sweet. It really captures, in my opinion, the essence of buying any type of subscription: getting more. Games with Gold... it basically is more of an attempt to capture buyers, but it does not feature solid titles, at a difference to Game Pass. With this update, we would be getting Among Us, Halo 5, Gears 5 (which I am specifically excited for), and in general it adds more value to those $60 than just "online gaming." Having to pay that much just to be able to play online was slightly a bummer aspect, but now having more to Xbox just reaffirms my decision of an Xbox over Playstation.
MICROSOFT BETTER NOT RAISE THE SUBSCRIPTION PRICE THOUGH!!!

@DrFluffyNips Yes.. as I said above, Games with Gold does not give solid titles. $60 just for online gameplay sounds... not the best. Of course, @AverageGamer makes a point by pointing out the statistics of Microsoft's sales, but in the end, Game Pass Core increases customer satisfaction, and once again doubles down against Playstation. Not that I don't like Playstation, I really do admire it (especially the DualSense), but Xbox just gives you more features. From MS Rewards to now Game Pass Core, I don't know who would say that's a bad bundle.

@Ninfan Dang I hope not...

Not really. Canceled game pass ultimate already.

Core certainly won't bring me back.

I still stand by games with gold being better than this quasi game stuff.

I'll be excited when they offer 12 month deals on core and ultimate. I never, ever, potatoes more then$40-$50 for Xbox live, ever.

If I only subbed to 'Gold', I'd think of this as an upgrade - especially based on the 'previous' year of GwG titles and the list of games I could play on Game Pass Core.

Every month, you have access to '25+' games - obviously not 'Day 1' releases, but a curated list of great games instead of getting a 'mediocre' game every half month you can beat in a few hours, if you even bother playing at all.

With 'more' Studios now, MS has the potential to deliver at least '4' AAA games a year, so potentially getting more 'big' 1st Party day 1 releases on Game Pass Ultimate, I doubt I would miss a couple of mediocre games a month. I won't be 'short' of something to play with the loss of GwG so it doesn't really impact me.

Time will tell of course, but it seems a better deal for 'Gold' only subscribers to me and Ultimate still has 'enough' reasons to upgrade to it from my perspective even at its 'slightly' increased price.

Not doing it. I’ve been trimming my expenses and Xbox Live is something that I’ve had since practically day one. To see it go away while not surprising is certainly disappointing. I’ll probably resubscribe at some point down the line, but for now it’s time to move on.

Far better than Gold for the same price, I would of preferred they gave 2 of the games a month rather than a whole bunch as this would be a better way of showing Core vs PS Plus now the 2 indie games have gone. Sony fanboys loved Gold as they used to make out it was the competition against PS Plus Essentials for point scoring.

@Wilforce Your post makes no sense, it's still the same thing, the price stays the same and you get better games.

@Krysus
Sony doesn't have it's own servers it's using Microsofts Azure servers. So no, Sony can't afford to making online gaming free.
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/sony-says-its-relationship-with-microsoft-is-deepening-following-cloud-tech-deal/

@DrFluffyNips "Quality over quantity every time". If you're paying for Ultimate, you are paying double the price just to play online, with no extra benefits. Last time I checked, getting less for the same price was neither quality nor quantity.

@Sifi "the price stays the same and you get better games". That's only if you're paying for Gold and gonna pay for Core. If you're paying for Ultimate, you're paying double the price for online and nothing else now.

Should have called it "Game Pass Live".

Xbox Live Gold was getting worse over the past year or so but I'd say Game Pass Core is even worse value. I'll do without Xbox online multiplayer like I have for the past 4 months.

I’d hoped it’d be free. I own all the games on there I’d care to play. Ah well, still got another 3 years or Ultimate.

@Aeula Why would you hope Core is free when you have 3 years of Ultimate Gamepass which you paid peanuts for by doing the Gold conversion ?
Microsoft are not a charity they are there to make money just like Sony and Nintendo.

Subscription Models are the Xbox way going forward so not at all surprising.

Gamepass Ultimate with the conversion 3:2 method and you don't need to buy a game for years.

@OrfeasDourvas Xbox had XBL just kind of lingering out on its own. Meanwhile, GP took over the narrative. Doesn't change the fact that some people just want to go online. Some people go in and out of membership, which is odd to me, but is the mode for some. I'm not sure if GP Core has an annual subscription discount like XBL.

@shoeses Due to a workaround on the backend with Backwards Compatibility you can still play all the free 360 and Xbox games they gave you without needing a sub at all.

@themightyant Why would Ultimate get more due to the existence of Core? I've already turned 35 months of XBL into 63 months of Ultimate. No need to squeeze and milk the service until the whole thing collapses. Xbox will dial back, there is no way it can keep going never-ending memberships.

I noticed last week that 3-month GP Ultimate Rewards are no longer available — maybe it is curated and remove for me and people like me (who put almost all rewards points into extending Ultimate).

Very weird structure with the ever-changing lineup. Why not keep the 19 first games and rotate the final 6? They're very transparently trying to get people to upgrade to ultimate.

I don’t know a single person who willingly pays for gold nowadays and MS’s been slowly and deliberately killing gold for years now. I think the only people who use gold were the ones who forgot to cancel their subscription. Now they’ll transition them to the lowest GP tier and claim influx of GP subscribers.

Am I the only person that realized Xbox has maneuvered so every mp account will have to purchase access. We have 4-5 accounts for 60$ a year. Now it's going to be $240-300!? Game pass stopped sharing and now live is being replaced!

As an ultimate subscriber all I'm doing is losing the free GWG games, essentially getting less for more money.
I was never hugely bothered by the games they gave with GWG so I guess its hardly a huge loss, but this feels like the thin edge of wedge and I definitely do not trust what MS have plotted for us at all at this point. If I wasn't paid up for some time, I'd simply cancel and buy the one or two must have titles like starfield so that I actually played them on the real 'day one'.

@Sifi Alright... let me type this out nice and slooow... so that it might potentially click in your head... and not trigger another random unrelated rant about Sony... as is common with your type.

What am I pay extra for... that is replacing... GWG... that is not just online... with GPU...?

Nope, the game lineup is poor and their service barely has any value.

@Sifi Rebranding has a psychological effect that should be taken into consideration and can either help or hurt the business. In my case, the brand Xbox Live holds significance to me due to my engagement with it in late high school and college. The timing is unfortunate because this month I’ve been actively reassessing, which subscription services I want to maintain moving forward. In changing the name, Microsoft has given me a solid reason to add Xbox to my chopping block because the branding will no longer be present and therefore any nostalgic value is inherently lost. My post is a reflection on the subjectively poor timing and significance of branding.

@themightyant I guess something is better than nothing. Those GwG haven't been anything to write home about for years (a decade?). My main use for them was a hope of getting a digital license for a game I own physically (e.g., SF4, Super SF4, SF4 Ultra). That would alleviate the need to drudge up the disc and swap the mystery disc that is in the drive.

The GwGs didn't seem to be advertised as prevalently, either. When I do track them down, I've been downloading them just for the hell of it. Next, they are quickly uninstalled to save drive space. The free games from Epic store are arguably of better quality/value.

@shoeses What are you even talking about, how does Ultimate have no extra benefits other than online play? You mean apart from having access to the entire game pass catalogue instead of ~25 games, plus PC access? Maybe go back and re-read what the tiers actually are 😂

@DrFluffyNips Let me simplify what I said for a very dim bulb such as yourself: Ultimate has lost value by losing GWG. It has been replaced by nothing, as all the games on GP Core are already on Game Pass. Before you paid extra for EA Play, the Cloud, online, & GWG. Now GWG is gone. 4 minus 1 is 3, which is less than 4. You get it now? Probably not, so ask someone for help.

@shoeses That's lovely, but that has nothing to do with what you said originally. You're saying that you pay double the price for Ultimate compared to Core (which isn't even correct), with no extra benefits over core other than online multiplayer. As I said though, there are plenty of benefits in Ultimate which Core doesn't have.

Yeah it's losing GWG, but like I said in my original comment, you're only "losing value" if you actually played those 24 annual bargain bin games in the first place, which the majority of people didn't. And even then, that's an entirely different argument to your original reply.

Might want to work on that reading comprehension before trying to insult others 🙈

@DrFluffyNips I'm really trying to simplify as much as possible for you, but I can't... let alone politely for a site like this. In the end though, I already know what the outcome would be from your first Reply - no matter what I say or any point I make, this would end with you having a schizo rant about Sony, and about how anyone who doesn't lick the boots of Microsoft and has any non-positive feedback is part of the grand Sony conspiracy. Because you're the PureXbox equivalent of a PushSquare Commenter, and aren't here to have actual conversations.

Why is this needed? I've been on Gold because I don't care about having a million games. I have a small selection of games I like to play. This is just an excuse for price hikes soon

@krzysztof81 I'm still on Gold. I don't give a damn about any of the extras. And it's so much cheaper.

@shoeses Alright so you're refusing to address anything I said and are instead rambling about some fanboyism which nobody brought up, and somehow I'm the one not willing to have actual conversations?

For the record, I've got both a Series X and PS5. I've got no horse in this race, I'll praise and criticise either side as needed. Feel free to continue making up situations though, you do you man haha

@Sifi I was hoping the online play would be free.

@themightyant Yeah, GwG is no loss to me. Nothing substantial. Not even part of the equation, really. GP Ultimate is a good deal at full price (which I don't pay), IMO.

GwG was there just to sweeten up paying for XBL. I've been a member from the beginning...the XBL beta, actually. Non-stop. Converting to GP Ultimate was a no brainer. I was going to be paying for XBL, anyway. Three years have passed, and MS Rewards points have extended my membership to 11/27/2025. As you can see, I can't really complain.

(Suspiciously, 3-month GP Ultimate Rewards are no longer recommended to me.)