Gamers soon won’t need to have Xbox Live Gold to hop into party chat with their friends on Xbox Live.
The requirement will be lifted at around the same time Microsoft removes the Xbox Live Gold barrier for free-to-play games.
The “service changes” are in the process of being tested.
Xbox Insiders in Alpha Skip Ahead & Alpha today we are flighting some new features. Multiplayer in Free-to-play games, Looking 4 Groups and Party Chat on Xbox no longer requires an Xbox Live Gold membership as we flight and test these service changes ahead of general availability
— Brad Rossetti (@WorkWombatman) March 24, 2021In the age of free messaging and voice chat applications and websites, paying to talk to your friends during a gaming session doesn’t really make sense. In addition to party chat, voice chat will be available during free-to-play games and “Looking 4 Groups.”
Microsoft is making several massive moves. The company recently acquired Bethesda and is reportedly looking to acquire messaging/voice chat application Discord.
The future looks bright for Microsoft as a company, and at face value, it’s good that users will be getting more features at a cheaper rate. The console wars have always meant massive amounts of money have been thrown around by Sony and Microsoft.
See Xbox Deals on Amazon.comThese changes might cost Microsoft quite a chunk of change in the long run, but it’ll be much better for the future of the company’s console if it gives incentives to people to come over as opposed to making users pay for every single feature that should be free in the first place and are offered for free elsewhere.
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