Xbox Live Gold Officially Being Rebranded as Xbox Game Pass Core on September 14 - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 17 July 2023 / 3,851 Views
Microsoft has officially announced, following a leak yesterday, Xbox Live Gold is being rebranded to Xbox Game Pass Core on September 14.
Xbox Game Pass Core will be the same price as Xbox Live Gold, which is $9.99 per month or $59.99 per year. It will give subscribers access to online multiplayer, a selection of over 25 games, and exclusive member deals. More titles will be added two or three times per year.
"For over twenty years, Xbox players have been connecting via Xbox Live to compete, cooperate, and experience the world’s biggest online multiplayer games," reads the Xbox Wire post. "In 2017, we introduced Xbox Game Pass which provided a curated library of games. Game Pass Core brings online play together with Game Pass in a new offering for gamers around the world.
"With this evolution, we’re saying farewell to Games with Gold. We wanted to use this opportunity to re-imagine how to include content with this subscription. We found that the answer to the most compelling catalog was to leverage select titles from our Xbox Game Pass catalog."
Current Xbox Live Gold members will automatically be converted to Xbox Game Pass Core, with no change in pricing, and be given immediate access to the library of over 25 games from Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda, and Xbox content partners.
Games with Gold will end on September 1, however, any previously redeemed Xbox One games redeemed via Games with Gold game will remain available to those who remain a Game Pass Core or Game Pass Ultimate member. Any Xbox 360 games redeemed via Games with Gold will remain in a player's library regardless of subscription status.
Here is the list confirmed titles so far that will be available on Xbox Game Pass Core at launch:
- Among Us
- Descenders
- Dishonored 2
- Doom Eternal
- Fable Anniversary
- Fallout 4
- Fallout 76
- Forza Horizon 4
- Gears 5
- Grounded
- Halo 5: Guardians
- Halo Wars 2
- Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
- Human Fall Flat
- Inside
- Ori & The Will of the Wisps
- Psychonauts 2
- State of Decay 2
- The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited
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 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
More Articles
An improvement over XBL Gold and GWG, which has been poor for years, but sadly, this lineup still isn't where it needs to be. Why does PC get the full Gamepass and EA Play library of 400+ games for the same $10 a month as this new console Core sub with just 25 games? Why is Gamepass console $1 a month more than Gamepass PC, yet is missing online multiplayer and EA Play unlike Gamepass PC, meaning console users have to pay $7 a month more for Gamepass Ultimate for the same feature set as Gamepass PC?
Xbox fans really need to make a stink about the pricing/features discrepancy between console and PC, Xbox console owners shouldn't feel like 2nd class citizens within their own gaming ecosystem. If we make a big enough stink, like we did when Xbox tried to double the price of Gold a couple of years ago, Xbox will hear us and adjust the features and/or pricing. At the very least, Xbox needs to add online multiplayer to Gamepass console, and then adjust the pricing between Core and Console so that there is more than a $1 a month gap differentiating 25 games and 400+ games. Maybe $7 for core and $12 for Gamepass console? It still wouldn't be equality with PC Gamepass, but it would be alot better than this current lineup at least.
Last I checked, Game Pass for Console had hundreds more games than PC Game Pass, and even EA Play wasn't enough to fully make up that difference. It is a moving target as they frequently add and remove games, but every time I've checked that relationship had held true.
So if you pay the $7 extra for Ultimate, then you get hundreds more games, you get console multiplayer, and you get to keep your catalogue of former Games With Gold titles. Maybe that's worth an additional $7, maybe it's not, but I'd argue it's significantly more value than PC Game Pass.
(Games With Gold has mostly sucked recently, but there have been a lot of good ones over the years so keeping access to them will matter to some people.)
Sadly, not anymore. According to the official Gamepass list, console gamepass has 464, while PC gamepass has 439. That is a gap of just 25 games now, 25 more games is hardly worth $7 more.
You make a fair point about getting access to your GWG catalog as well, for some people that is hundreds more games, but most people who have been subbed to Gold for years or even the full decade that GWG existed have already paid more than enough into Gold to have bought most of the games they actually play from their GWG library in one of Xbox's many digital sales throughout the years, so I don't really think getting to keep access to your GWG library is worth that extra $7 a month over PC gamepass.
I really think Xbox needs to add multiplayer to console Gamepass at the very least, and then readjust the pricing for core and console tiers so that there is a big enough price gap to justify having on 25 games vs 464, $7 vs $11 or $12 seems fair to me personally.
Actually, that's good to hear that PC Game Pass has caught up that much. Thanks for the update.
I don't understand paying for Game Pass anyway, when all you have to do is a few minutes of stupid human tricks every day to renew it at no monetary cost. Been doing that for over two years now. :)
And the OG Xbox and Xbox 360 stuff you get to keep even if you let your subscription lapse, so it's only the Xbox One portion of your GWG library that you'd be losing. So I'm arguing against myself now. :P
Yeah. Of all things GamePass Console should umm have the console online multiplayer. Completely money grabbing at this point.
An improvement on Gold, but why would the Gold games only be limited to having a Core or Ultimate subscription, and not also on the Console subscription too?
Yep, it's an improvement for sure but I also feel like it's a missed opportunity to bonify the standard Game Pass with live service.
They should also have done away with annual pricing and just reduce their pricing to its equivalent of 4.99/month. (Who the f* pays the monthly price anyway)
They would have had a clear progression in their offering instead of the win some lose some scenario of changing from core to standard.
Not sure if this is a improvement...
Anyway, "Xbox Game Pass Core" sucks compared to "Basic PS+". Xbox basic sub. is more similar to Nintendo online sub., that also sucks.
In the end Playstation is the best "Basic" online subs. I hope this keeps going as i prefer buying my games.
Edit: i see that they will add games with time..
"More titles will be added two or three times per year"
Yeah, it's kinda improvement, anyway, still sucks compared to basic PS+.
Also, to all disagrees. Please tell me how this new Xbox Game Pass Core is better than PS+.
PS+ Essential is a better deal than this, but it's a nice improvement over GwG . It's too early to say, "it sucks" when it has a decent lineup of games and could very well improve over time. It doesn't need to be as good, if value is there regardless.
As of now, this is how I view the offers in comparison:
PS+ Essential > Game Pass Core
PS+ Extra < Game Pass (Console)
PS+ Premium < Game Pass Ultimate
Better value with Gamepass? I disagree.
Games with Gold have had 440 games on the scheme so far... And those games never disappear, they are forever on my account.
Gamepass core will have what... 25 games? And they could vanish at any moment? And how often will they cycle through?
The launch selection of titles will include Fable anniversary, Halo 5 (That's right, the worst Halo!), Gears 5, Forza Horizon 4, Fallout 4 and a few others... A chunk of which can be found cheap in the bargain bin or people have received free with Games with Gold already.
Microsoft's plan is to give people a taste of Gamepass and hopefully spend more cash to upgrade the Tier... No one would choose Halo 5 over Infinite for example, which you would get with Gamepass Ultimate.
The biggest issue with GwG is how nobody is interested in the games they are giving away. Not the number of games. This launches with 25 games I would rather play than anything GwG has offered in the past 3 years or longer. I'm certain most feel the same way as well.
GwG has been offering 2 games a month, which is 24 games a year. This is 25 games, with more added 2-3 times a year.
Halo Infinite multiplayer is F2P if anyone is interested in playing it over Halo 5. Sub a month of Game Pass if they want to play the campaign. It's not that complicated.
Except if you have claimed your games with Games with Gold from the start... You would have 440 titles, not 25.
You would already have a chunk of Gamepass core, making it redundant.
You also don't loose access to any games with Games with Gold once they get swapped out.
People can still play those titles if you did redeem them. Basically no one is redeeming every GwG title. Most have way less than 100 redeemed.
You're still ignoring how basically everyone has stopped caring about GwG because the game selection for the most part has been terrible for years. The 25 titles will likely turn into 50-75 at some point. Just like how the "100 games" on GP is close to 400 now.
"Basically no one is redeeming every GwG title."
I have redeemed -every- GwG title making your statement an outright lie.
They won't increase Gamepass Core to much as it will eat into the profitability of higher tiers, incentive and money and all that stuff. It's why Microsoft is on the big bucks.
Consequently, any new titles added to the service will have a high probability of being a games with gold title anyway.
Either way, I am loosing value, not gaining it. - Would have been better if they kept GwG alongside Gamepass.
That is why I said, "basically no one" because I know some out there do. Sorry this is less value for you. Since I have Game Pass this is irrelevant to me too, but so was GwG. For new users, I can see this being more appealing.
These Game Pass Core games are already in Game Pass, so it's not offering anything unique. This is likely how it's going to be going forward.
Very interesting that there are some third-party games in there. I would have expected this initiative to be first-party only.
And I love Halo Wars 2, but I like the original Halo Wars even a little bit more than it. Interesting that they went with the older Forza Horizon option, but with the newer Halo Wars.
I think they need to streamline game pass a little bit. This doesn't really do that, though it is a small improvement over the status quo. And it's really time to just get rid of subscriptions for basic online play. I think that's becoming less and less relevant anyway, as we move towards subscriptions just to access games.
They should eliminate any barriers to basic online play, throw all of the enhanced online play functions into Game Pass Console, then eliminate this tier altogether.
