You’ll still need a Gold Xbox Live subscription to play free titles such as World of Tanks.
Earlier, we got some confirmation that Microsoft was easing up on its Xbox Live Gold requirement for certain apps. Unfortunately, it looks like this easement won’t effect your ability to play MMOs The Elder Scrolls Online and free-to-play titles, as they will still require an Xbox Live Gold subscription to run.
“Right now we haven’t changed the policy on MMOs and free-to-play games,” Microsoft’s Phil Spencer confirmed to Joystiq. Spencer cited that these kinds of games have various “engineering, policy and partner constraints” as the main reason for keeping them behind the Gold paywall. He says it’s not really in Microsoft’s hands to make these kinds of decisions, and the specific developers in question would have to come to a new agreement with all of their partners to change the policy.
Spencer confirmed that Bethesda’s latest MMORPG, The Elder Scrolls Online, will still require a Gold subscription on top of the developer’s own monthly fees, as well as free-to-play titles including World of Tanks, Warface and Happy Wars.
“So today, the announcement is about the entertainment applications being available to all Xbox Live members,” Spencer said. “It was really about going as fast as we could on the things that we completely controlled.”
I’m sure if we complain about this loud enough though, Microsoft will pull another 180 and “change their mind,” just like they did with the “most integral feature of the system”.
Source: Joystiq
