They will no longer need Xbox Live Gold to access Party Chat, Looking 4 Groups, and Free-To-Play Multiplayer features on the Xbox platform.
The news was revealed via Twitter by Brad Rossetti, the developer of the Xbox Preview Program. “Multiplayer in Free-to-play, Looking 4 Groups and Party Chat games on Xbox no longer requires an Xbox Live Gold membership,” said Rossetti. The changes are debuting for Xbox Insiders on the Alpha Skip Ahead and Alpha programs at this time “prior to general availability.”
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, 2021
This means that when the update reaches all Xbox users, players will no longer need an Xbox Live Gold subscription to create a group chat with their friends, search for a multiplayer group, or play free multiplayer titles on Xbox.
It’s unclear exactly how many games will be supported by this change, but there are plenty of high-profile free titles on Xbox like Apex Legends, Fortnite, and Destiny 2 that will benefit from this.
The news comes just as Xbox has renamed Xbox Live to Xbox Network to “distinguish the underlying service from Xbox Live Gold memberships.” In other Microsoft news, the company is reported to be in talks to buy Discord for more than $ 10 billion.
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