Recently Microsoft announced a price increase on XBox Gold, the service that allows folks to play games online. Due to the overwhelmingly negative response Microsoft kept the pricing as it was and did one more in that they said they would allow free online multiplayer for all free to play games. Put another way, you can play games like Warframe and Fortnite for free without having to pay for XBox Games Pass or XBox Gold. As someone that recently bought an XBox Series X that doesn't have Games Pass or Gold this is a very welcome change. Feels like I'm getting an upgrade for just having an XBox. I'm well aware the PC versions of these games allow free online multiplayer and Nintendo allows Fortnite as the free lone exception on the Switch of games that don't require a paid sub for online multplayer but XBox has been requiring Gold for online since it's inception so this is a very cool change.

Still seems odd to me that I paid for the Halo collection and then need to pay again for online multiplayer but for now, this is a very welcomed upgrade. I can see a world where a lot of people get an XBox to play the raft of incredible free to play games and Microsoft just made the prospect that much better.

One thing I'm wondering is that since Halo Infinite's multiplayer will be free to play, this means new Halo won't require Gold right? Seems like it, but you never know until it happens as Halo multiplayer has been behind the paywall. If new Halo multiplayer is incredible and also free to play I think this could open up a fun option for everyone to enjoy some shootery action for a fun price on PC and XBox.

For an exhaustive list of all the games you can play online multiplayer for free on xbox click the link below:

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2021/04/21/online-multiplayer-free-to-play-games-unlocked/
https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/31/21349236/halo-infinite-multiplayer-free-to-play-120fps-rumors