Epic Pushed Xbox to Drop Gold Requirement for Free-to-Play Games - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 04 May 2021 / 1,545 Views
Court documents from the Epic Games v. Apple case continue to be leaked online and one posted by The Verge reveals an email chain between Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney and the head of Xbox Phil Spencer.
Sweeney in an email sent on August 5, 2020 asked the head of Xbox if they could drop the Xbox Live Gold requirement for free-to-play games to happen on the launch of Fortnite Season 14, which started on August 27, 2020.
"Epic has certain plans for August that will provide an extraordinary opportunity to highlight the value proposition of consoles and PCs, in contrast to mobile platforms, and to onboard new console users," said Sweeney. "While I can’t share details with any third party at this point, I give you Epic’s assurance that our efforts will be positive and supportive of Microsoft, Xbox, and Windows."
Spencer responded by saying that "we will get there and I want to partner with you." He also hinted that Microsoft was working on free-to-play games no longer requiring Xbox Live. This announcement didn't happen until Microsoft reversed course on its price hike of Xbox Live Gold in January of this year and it wasn't until recently the Gold requirement was dropped.
"Totally understood!" said Sweeney in response to Spencer taking a while to respond to his previous email. "I gather there’s a lot going on at Microsoft nowadays. Anyway, you’ll enjoy the upcoming fireworks show."
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.
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people go crazy about sony getting cash from epic
but no one bats an eye when xbox wont let u play free games without live GOLD haha
all free games on ps4 that are online multiplayers doesnt need ps plus so theres that!
it took microsoft a long time to even drop it to watch free streaming services (BBCIPLAYER)
Considering it should have never been there, good on epic pushing them in that direction though I think they were trying to get this for FF14, I guess it just took some time rework things.
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