Games with Gold: first the classics left, then the whole program
Games with Gold gutted in 2022 and ended entirely in 2023
The market's verdict: 0.0% on MSFT in the week after.
What actually happened
In 2022 Microsoft told Games with Gold subscribers it had "reached the limits of our ability to bring new games to the catalog", dropped all original Xbox and Xbox 360 titles from October onward and cut the monthly haul to two games, with no price change. Then on July 17, 2023, it announced the program would end entirely on September 1, folding Xbox Live Gold into Game Pass Core, a cheaper catalog of the subscription Microsoft would rather you had. A fifteen-year-old loyalty program, shrunk, then retired, then upsold. The 360 games it gave away still work; the promise did not.
This one is officially acknowledged.
They did it more than once
First they repriced Gold, then they retired what Gold was for.
Links
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Acknowledgement
- Xbox Wire (Microsoft) (official)
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Context
- Windows Central (publication)
↳ caused by Games with Gold end / Game Pass Core (July 2023)
Timeline
- Jul 17, 2023 Stood by it Microsoft stood by it.