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Microsoft is testing the removal of Xbox Live Gold for playing free-to-play multiplayer

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If you've been paying to play multiplayer on free-to-play games, Microsoft has good news for you today. As it promised to do back in January, it's starting to remove some of the Xbox Live Gold requirements on its platforms. One of those is the ability to play multiplayer on free-to-play games.

Right now, you'll have to be an Xbox Insider on the Preview Alpha ring, as noted in a blog post. Other things that you're not going to need an Xbox Live Gold subscription for include Looking 4 Groups and Party Chat.

Microsoft's original promise to bring down the paywall came on the heels of a backlash around a plan to double the price of Xbox Live Gold for new customers. It took less than a day for the Redmond firm to update its original blog post to not only roll back its plans, but to apologize for them.

As for when this will roll out for everyone, it should be relatively soon, once the feature makes its way through the various channels of the Xbox Insider Program. It doesn't seem to be tied to a particular build, so you likely won't need a feature update for it.

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