Call of Duty: Warzone, Destiny 2 to drop Xbox Live Gold requirement in future update
Destiny 2 and CoD: Warzone still need Xbox Live Gold for now.
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What you need to know
In a historic change for Xbox Live, Microsoft’s online network that has powered Xbox since the original, Xbox Live Gold is being dropped as a requirement to play free-to-play online games. As of today, Microsoft is nowtesting this Xbox Live Gold change in all Xbox Insider branches, indicating that this momentous shift is nearly ready for a public rollout. However, it seems that some free-to-play games still require Xbox Live Gold, and Microsoft has acknowledged the issue.
From the latestXbox Insider changelog:
It seems that in both of these cases, the games require input from the developer in order to support the new Xbox Live Gold policy. It should be noted thatDestiny 2used to be a premium paid game and still requires PlayStation Plus for matchmade activities onPS5and PS4. Call of Duty: Warzone is also free-to-play, but was released as an add-on for the premiumCall of Duty: Modern Warfare. Both games are certainly a little messier than other free-to-play games.
Microsoft hasn’t revealed when a fix is coming for the issue, but hopefully, all free-to-play games will be playable without Xbox Live Gold by the time the update rolls out to the general public. Neither game works in current tests, so these games may have to wait a little longer. Users in the Xbox Insider program should also keep an eye out for any other free-to-play games that still require Xbox Live Gold to play online.
This is the most significantXbox Live Gold changesince the network’s debut, and would make it truly free to play free-to-play games onXbox Series X,Xbox Series S, and Xbox One. Many of these games are some of thebest Xbox gamesaround.
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Zachary Boddy (They / Them) is a Staff Writer for Windows Central, primarily focused on covering the latest news in tech and gaming, the best Xbox and PC games, and the most interesting Windows and Xbox hardware. They have been gaming and writing for most of their life starting with the original Xbox, and started out as a freelancer for Windows Central and its sister sites in 2019. Now a full-fledged Staff Writer, Zachary has expanded from only writing about all things Minecraft to covering practically everything on which Windows Central is an expert, especially when it comes to Microsoft. You can find Zachary on Twitter@BoddyZachary.
