UPDATE: “Xbox Live is not going away.”
UPDATE 23/3/21: In a statement to Eurogamer this morning, Microsoft explained the recent brand change for its underlying online infrastructure. In short, the new phrasing of the Xbox network is more “descriptive,” the company said, and none of the systems, subscriptions, or anything else you actually use have changed.
“Xbox Live is not going away,” Microsoft told Eurogamer. “We’re constantly making adjustments to create a simpler, more descriptive messaging system for Xbox in different areas. None of these experiences or features will change as part of these updates.”
ORIGINAL STORY 22/3/21: Microsoft is renaming Xbox Live, its underlying online multiplayer and digital media delivery service, to ‘Xbox Network’, which it says will help differentiate it from Xbox Live Gold.
The name Xbox Live has been used since the service’s debut with the original Xbox in 2002. However, hints of a looming remark – one that Microsoft denied at the time – appeared last August when the name of its updated service agreement was dropped. of ‘Xbox online service’.
But, while users note that the removal of the Xbox Live moniker in Microsoft’s recent Xbox dashboard beta, the company made the renaming to ‘Xbox network’ official.
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“‘Xbox network’ refers to the underlying Xbox online service, which has been updated in the Microsoft service agreement,” a Microsoft spokesman told The Verge in a statement.
“The upgrade from ‘Xbox Live’ to ‘Xbox Network’ is intended to differentiate the underlying service from Xbox Live Gold memberships,” he continued.
Xbox Live Gold made headlines earlier this year when Microsoft announced a price increase for the subscription service.
The move has been heavily criticized as it comes amid a pandemic and a global financial crisis, and the decision was quickly reversed, and Microsoft also announced that it would eventually be free to play games without an Xbox entry.