Free Xbox Online Multiplayer is a Huge Deal – Don’t Mess Up, Microsoft

• Jeff Grub has claimed that Xbox will be doing away with the need for a Gold subscription to play games online.
• If this is true, it’ll make the Xbox Series X the only next-gen machine without an online gaming subscription.
• This could be Xbox’s most significant power move in the next-gen console wars.

Online gaming is a massive part of modern gaming culture, considering that an average gamer spends three days of their life playing online .  The Xbox Series X appears to be trying to lean heavily into this fact.

According to leaker Jeff Grub , Microsoft will soon be doing away with the need to have an Xbox gold subscription to play online.

This could be the most significant power move in Xbox’s next-gen arsenal.

Free Online Gaming Is Rare on Consoles These Days

Free online play is a hallmark of PC gaming and has been for years. With the Xbox Series X seemingly trying to stray closer to PC Gaming, offering free online play is a big step in the direction.

Removing the need for a subscription to play online is also a big message to both Nintendo and Sony. In the previous generation, Microsoft was the outlier in charging for online gaming, but that didn’t leave competing platforms with any significant advantage .

In the current-gen, paying for online play has become the standard for the entire industry. At this stage, if the Xbox Series X doesn’t require pay-to-play for online features – it’s a telling message from Xbox to the gaming community: We’re here to let you play.

Watch: Free Xbox Gold Explained

The Xbox Series X Could Be the Go-To Console for a Lot of People

The Xbox Series X could be the console for the masses. It offers a lot of advantages over other consoles for both casual and hardcore gamers.

Game Pass gives players an out-of-the-box library, something that neither Nintendo nor Sony seems ready to offer just yet. Free online gaming would only be the icing on the Xbox Series X cake, especially for parents of younger, online-focused, gamers on a budget.

Whether or not this new move will see returns for Microsoft or not is still a mystery. If previous console generations have shown anything, it’s just how unpredictable the so-called ‘console wars’ can be . One thing’s for sure, Xbox knows what they want to do, and they’re upfront about how they intend to do it.