Update 2: Well, that didn’t take long. In less than 24 hours, Microsoft has reversed its decision to raise the price of Xbox Live Gold, announcing that it will keep the annual subscription price of £ 49.99 / $ 59.99. In addition, the online pay wall for free games has now been removed, and it fits PS Plus.
Good news for Xbox owners, then, but you have to wonder how that decision came out of the boardroom.
Update 1: Just a quick update on this story, Microsoft has confirmed that six months of Xbox Live Gold will cost £ 42.99 in the UK. A 12 month PS Plus subscription currently costs £ 49.99.
Original story: Hopefully Microsoft’s new Xbox Live Gold pricing scheme hasn’t given Sony any idea, because Playstation plus it currently looks like a robbery compared to the revised price structure of the Team. If you remove Xbox Game Pass from the conversation, we’d argue that Sony’s main subscription level has been well above its nearest competitor in terms of monthly games for a while, and is now also available at half price.
Currently, the cost of subscribing to PS Plus for 12 months costs $ 59.99, but after some rumors, Microsoft has revealed that it will now charge $ 59.99 for only sis months of service. Apparently, this will only apply to new or expired subscribers; the wording is awkward, but it looks like those with a 12-month recurring subscription will continue to pay the previous price of $ 59.99 for a year.
Of course, there is a much broader debate about how the Redmond firm effectively raises prices to increase the value of its Game Pass Ultimate option. However, it’s worth remembering that a lot of gamers are only interested in playing titles like FIFA 21 and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, and now they’ll have to pay twice the price to do so with Xbox Live Gold compared to and PS Plus.
It’s also worth adding that, at the time of writing, free titles like Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone don’t require a PS Plus subscription to PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5, where Xbox gamers will have to shell out $ 120 to enjoy of these securities online unless the company changes its policies. This without even mentioning additional advantages such as the PS Plus Collection, which really adds to the value of Sony’s service.
Of course, it is perfectly possible that the Japanese giant is seeing this price rise and thinking it may come out with a similar increase. Hopefully not, while we consider PS Plus to be as good a value as we are now, we’re not sure we’d want to pay those Xbox Live gold prices, especially when Sony doesn’t have a compelling alternative to Game Pass Last yet.