Rumour: Microsoft Wants To Make Xbox Live Gold Part Of Game Pass

We've seen all these rumours over the past couple of years that Microsoft might be thinking about getting rid of Xbox Live Gold for good, but now a new rumour is suggesting it might be permanently integrated into Xbox Game Pass.

Journalist Brad Sams has advised that he's heard Microsoft is "trying to find ways to contemplate" combining Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass, and it sounds like the idea is to make it the "baseline" offer at $15 USD per-month:

"I've heard that Microsoft is contemplating figuring out how to raise the price of these services to include Gold so that $15 per-month is the new baseline, meaning you get Game Pass and you also get Xbox Live Gold, and that's the only tier.

It would not surprise me if when Microsoft closes this acquisition of Activision, they actually raise that base floor-up price of how much it's going to cost to get into their service."

As you may well be aware, Xbox Live Gold is already integrated into Xbox Game Pass as part of the Ultimate subscription, which itself costs $14.99 per-month. If it becomes a requirement to be a Game Pass member to access Xbox Live Gold, however, that's going to be quite a massive and potentially risky move for Microsoft moving forward. Maybe Gold will stay at the same price, and just Game Pass will get the baseline price increase to $15? Who knows.

That said, with Microsoft making such huge acquisitions in recent years and Xbox's Games with Gold program coming in for significant criticism recently, it feels like Xbox Live Gold needs a change sooner rather than later.

What are your thoughts on this? Let us know down in the comments section below.

[source youtube.com]