12 months’ Xbox Live Gold subscriptions withdrawn by Microsoft: What is being cooked there?

Something’s brewing at Microsoft as it appears the company has removed the ability to buy 12 month Xbox Live subscriptions through its store. The move was first noticed shortly after Xbox top dog Phil Spencer revealed changes to its Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Bundle.

While the single month and three-month subscriptions remain, there is now no longer an option to save by purchasing the 12-month sub, leading to speculation that the service will either be retired or refreshed for its next-gen system, Xbox Series X, which is out later this year.

It’s not yet clear why Microsoft has scrapped the 12 month Live subscriptions, but it’s being speculated that the move could suggest the Live subscription paywall could be removed entirely. Now that’s something that Sony might struggle to compete with. At the same time the question arrives, “Whether that will provide a better server?” The answer might put anyone in utter confusion!

Microsoft also recently confirmed that while the Xbox One S is still being manufactured and sold, its Xbox One X and Xbox One S All-Digital Editions have now been officially discontinued.

Word that Microsoft’s current-gen console was no longer in production began to circulate on message boards last week, and these initially unsubstantiated reports gained increasing credibility as a number of retailers, including Amazon and Target in the US began to list various Xbox One models as discontinued on their websites. So need to wait a bit before we get any clear clarification of this incident!