Free-to-Play Games No Longer Require Xbox Live Gold on Xbox Consoles - News

by William D'Angelo , posted on 21 April 2021 / 1,256 Views

Microsoft announced in January it will be making free-to-play games no longer require an Xbox Live Gold membership in the coming months. Now that day has come.

Microsoft today is removing the requirement to have Xbox Live Gold in order to play free-to-play games on Xbox consoles, including the Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One.

For many years Xbox Live Gold was required to play games like Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone, Apex Legends, and many more. Over 50 free-to-play games will no longer require Xbox Live Gold in order to play.

Microsoft is launching the multiplayer portion of the upcoming flagship game, Halo Infinite, as free-to-play. The game will release on the Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.

Nintendo and Sony never required you to pay for PlayStation Plus or Nintendo Switch Online in order to play free-to-play games. Xbox has now joined the other major video game console manufacturers.

Here is the list of free-to-play games that no longer require Xbox Live Gold:

3on3 FreeStyle
Aegis Wing
APB Reloaded
Apex Legends
Armored Warfare
Battle Ages
Battle Islands
Battle Islands: Commanders
Bless Unleashed
Brawlhalla
Call of Duty: Warzone
Crackdown
Crackdown 2
Crimson Alliance
Crossout
CRSED: F.O.A.D.
Darwin Project
Dauntless
DC Universe Online
Dead or Alive 5 Last Round: Core Fighters
Dead or Alive 6: Core Fighters
Defiance 2050
Destiny 2
Doritos Crash Course
Dungeon Defenders II
Enlisted
Eternal Card Game
Family Game Night
Fishing Planet
Fortnite
Galaxy Control: Arena
Gems of War
Happy Wars
Harm’s Way
Hawken
Hyper Scape
Killer Instinct
Korgan
Minion Masters
Neverwinter
Outriders (Demo)
Paladins
Path of Exile
Phantasy Star Online 2
Phantom Dust
Pinball FX2
Prominence Poker
Realm Royale
Rec Room
Resident Evil Revelations 2
ROBLOX
Rocket League
Rogue Company
Skyforge
SMITE
Spacelords
Spellbreak
Star Trek Online
Techwars Global Conflict
TERA
The Four Kings Casino and Slots
Too Human
Trove
Vigor
War Thunder
Warface
Warframe
World of Tanks
World of Warships: Legends
Yaris

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.

6 Comments

The Fury (on 21 April 2021)

"Free to play on everything but Xbox" wasn't a good sell really. Glad it's changed.

G2ThaUNiT (on 21 April 2021)

At least everyone's on the same playing field on this matter. Seemed like a no-brainer, but better late than never. Phil has REALLY turned Xbox around. Don Mattrick days never would've done something like this.

Bizwas G2ThaUNiT (on 21 April 2021)

Phil Spencer has turned Xbox around, no doubt, but to give him credit for this? He has been head of xbox for seven years now, if he had a genuine interest in not requiring xbox live for free to play games it would have happened a lot sooner. I am completely in the xbox ecosystem with two xboxes and two gamepass subscriptions in my household, it is my platform of choice, but since their strange move recently with the xbox live pricing (even though they quickly withdrew it again when they saw gamers' reaction) I have no illusion that uncle Phil's guiding light is the players' best. It's a business, period. Now they ran the numbers and decided that the increasing public backlash for requiring xbox live gold for f2p games is worse for business than what they can earn on the extra subscriptions they could force that way.

Runa216 (on 21 April 2021)

Took them long enough, but it's a good step forward! Now if only Sony could cut out their shenanigans and more freely allow crossplay we would collectively be one step closer towards true unity.