Microsoft may extend free Xbox Gold games offer, "sorry about disappointment"

Microsoft isn't ruling out making its monthly free Xbox Live Gold games offer a permanent fixture, the firm's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb has declared on Reddit.

[Ashlen]

If you really twist our arm and it looks like Sony is selling more units because of PS+ we'll think about extending it.

[Retroman]

MS offering free GOLD membership. it should have been free from the get-go instead of playing catch up with sony free service.

"sorry about disappointment"
yeah fking right.

[rdgneoz3]

Its talking about the free games they're giving away.... Not Free online gameplay. They announced Halo 3 and Assassin's Creed 2 at E3 as being part of the Free xbox Gold Games program and didn't mention any other games. The disappointment is from neither being offered in July and instead an old XBLA game being offered.

Hell, the update even says that xbox support listed AC2 and Halo 3 as the July games...

https://twitter.com/xboxkid...

Read the article first next time.

[HammadTheBeast]

Either way, nothings happening until people really get mad, and come on, it's AC2 and Halo 3, most Xbox players hardly give a care.

[Ben12]

sonys service is no longer free. sorry to break your heart.

[Mounce]

I'd think the smartest thing MS could do and that could hurt Sony(And I MAJORLY prefer Sony over Nintendo and Microsoft)

Is that Microsoft announces that GOLD is FREE and you can play online with Gold but to also reveal a Platinum membership for the Truly-devoted for $20 more than the Gold membership, but give you advantages that could be as boastful as all the savings and free games you get that Sony has offered for the past year.

If Microsoft went full-force into a concept like that? Microsoft would gain a lot of favor from the public and gamers, for sure. They'd be at a moderate loss in terms of the "What if" consumers who don't then move up from Gold to Platinum service, but, you REALLY gotta throw a fucking bone to your consumers, Microsoft. Not hide the bone and tell the dog to go lick at their genitals in the corner while you count their money.

[The_Con-Sept]

@choden: you are stupid. The PS+ subscription will be required to play <b>PS4 games online.</b> ( note that big PS4 lettering. )

Users will have free cross game chat across all games without needing to purchase PS+. PS+ is required for taking control over other people's games, posting videos, and having access to the free games, betas, and better discounts.

back on topic: With Microsoft flip flopping this much I see people's faith in the Xbox brand quickly diminishing. We may not even see the Xbox One launch at this rate. This is by far the worst move Microsoft could ever try to pull.

This is worse than Sony denying rumors about reveals. This is something that their users can, and probably will sue for. It is called false advertising. They said this at their reveal and are now retracting their statements. This is a classic Bill Gates move.

This is something that everyone must revolt against. PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo gamers need to revolt against such lewd and crude practices. It only means another company will try this in the future.

If I had an Xbox Live Gold account I would cancel your subscription and demand a refund. At the same time cancelling your credit cards in case Microsoft has you under automatic payments.

[MizTv]

xbox just cant get anything right

[B-radical]

There e3 games looked right lol.

[karl]

they look ok at most..

they only ones u know will be AAA are forza and halo...

the rest we know very little about..

and the ones that look good and know something about are third party... and seriously m8

we all know they will be on ps4 eventually

so why bother?

[MizTv]

Really?
If there e3 was so great then why all this back Peddling?
I think it sucked ass

[georgeenoob]

You fanboys need to give it a rest. "Sorry for disappointment" referred to the confusion behind halo 3 and AC 2, but you fanboys are obviously going to take that and blow it out of proportion and act like they referred to something a lot more than that.

[dantesparda]

What, you're not a fanboy? and especially when you are defending this? They did say that Halo 3 And AC2 were the games being given out in July, and now they are screwing people and a lot of Sony fanboys were also pointing out how they said "til the end of the year" and it seems that they were right. MS only intended for this to last til the end of the year.

You dumb fanboys keep taking your beloved companies sh!t and you's will get exactly what you's deserve. Speak up and hold these companies to their word and speak up when they are doing something you wrong. Don't defend them. Fanboys can be so pathetic!

[HammadTheBeast]

It's pathetic that you fanboys are disappointed over not getting 6 year old games that you'd get for $5 combined new.

Enjoy something Tower Defense while I play Uncharted 3, Xcom, and next week, Battlefield 3.

[12345idk]

^^^^ @georgeenoob You are the only fanboy I see calling other people fanboys...typical fanboy right there ^^^^

[georgeenoob]

How am I the fanboy? Was I defending MS with their selection? No, I was just telling you Sony sheep what MS clearly meant with the statement "sorry for the disappointment", cause with a statement like that you fanboys will obviously turn it into something it refers nothing to.

[BX81]

Give what a rest? MS clearly has no clue on how to give gamers quality for free! They are so far off in the nickel and dime forrest they got lost. You're offering old games that you can pick up for $8 and $15, these are your highlighted titles? Piss off MS!

[YNWA96]

This is primarily a fanboy site. I come here for the laugh now and to provoke some funny responses... Best comments here too.... Watching jack tretton video with one hand in pants.... Priceless but true it seems.... I know MS screwed up, but really, if Sony was a horse, you people would walk behind scooping up the shlt....

[karl]

after all that happened since e3

the biggest of fanboys are the ones favoring MS in any way

how could u? being a gamer there is just no reason to stick to this brand..

ud have to try way to much to see anything possitive about the xbox one lately

[YNWA96]

So I believe in what I want = fanboy.
Following the flock = greatness?

[romancer]

Looking over these forums, i am struck by the sheer number of posts made by Sony fans; why do they care, so obsessively, with anything that XBox does?

If you don't like something, walk away --- so the XBox is not for you. You don't have to keep saying the same thing 100 times.

I rarely see the reverse-obsession however. As for me, since I am enjoying "The Last of Us" very much on my PS3, and greatly enjoy my multiplayer companions on XBox Live, I don't see why anyone continues to argue that one must choose between the consoles and can only see the merits of one system.

[The_Con-Sept]

I can just see it now. It's December 1st 2013: Halo 3, Assassins Creed 2 finally come out for free. Jan 1st 2014. "Game no longer free to play."

[MariaHelFutura]

This seems to be getting said quite frequently.

[KillrateOmega]

Sorry, about the disappointment.

[Prcko]

and:
see ya next year

[adorie]

What? I thought "Infinite Power of The Cloud" was the new slogan?

[Skips]

Better than "All In One. Input One".

lol

[KillrateOmega]

Don't even get me started on 'All In One. Input One.'

[Double_O_Revan]

I think the only slogan they don't have, but need, is Square's from last E3.

"Please be excited"

[GenericNameHere]

Lol here's a video showing Microsoft's execs
http://m.youtube.com/watch?...

Replace oil spill with Xbox mess up

[Mr_Nuts]

Hmmmmm

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Ok MS...whatever

[Sigh]

lmao temporary "free". I mean PS Plus is temporarily free too but that's only if you don't subscribe again. MS still have a lot to learn.

[Stryfeno2]

With XBL when you decide to unsubscribe you still keep them.

[HammadTheBeast]

Or you could spend $5 and get to keep them anyways.

[Sharius]

oh.... then have fun with defense grid, i think i should be happy to keep them than spent 5$ and get BF3, oddworld, dokuro, metal slug.... and the list will go on and on....

[mxrider2199]

cool so i guess your keepng your 360 to play those free games youalready have the disc version for

[No_Limit]

YES, good news.

[dazzrazz]

Larry Hryb is just a PR puppet, why on earth everybody takes this guy so seriously ? last time he sad you can't switch of DRM with simple flip of a button, next day Microsoft was dumping most of its draconian policies.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

To be fair, its not going to be a simple flip of a switch. Their decision might feel like it is, but they are needing to do a day one firmware update to the box in order to do that. Firmware updates are not flipping a switch by any stretch.

[famoussasjohn]

The interview was at E3 in regards to "flipping a switch". They didn't make the announcement of the changes until a week later on the 19th. Plus it's a software patch that must be downloaded on day one for those changes to be made.

[B-radical]

There creating a patch for it.

[Gridloc]

When you can't innovate, COPY.

[Retroman]

sorry, dude thats been played too much. time for MS be ORIGINAL as NINTENDO been for last 30 years.

[Gridloc]

So remind me what company started giving free games on 3 devices again and soon to be a fourth? Yep you guessed it, NOT MICROSOFT...

[GameCents]

Free? You PAY to rent those games. Don't come here and talk about free when it is clearly a PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION service.

Also, SONY didn't invent "giving away" games.

[falviousuk]

Which is exactly what Sony have done

This website is full of TROLLSSSSSS trolling all day long, if the playstation is so great why arent you all off playing it day and night.

Ill prefer to be a gamer than a troller.

[Gridloc]

Look above that comment was for you...

[falviousuk]

So remind me who put a HDD in a console as standard, and who set up a stable online service for online gaming on a console as standard and who started an online store for smaller games, and who started putting indie games on their online store.

Yep, you guessed it, NOT SONY

[Gridloc]

Read the headlines of THIS article. Then tell me with an honest face that Microsoft is the first to include a HDD (the PC says Hi). Then continue with how Microsoft was the first console that had online play (guess what, the Dreamcast says Hi too). If indies are so important why were they limited to 50 mb at launch and why is Microsoft not open with indies like everyone else... Just using someone else's idea don't make them innovators. Btw enjoy defense grid.

[DigitalRaptor]

I'm pretty sure, didn't PS2 have a HDD expansion bay?

And PS2's online was launched in July 2001.
Xbox Live Launched in August 2002.

And yeah, as was mentioned, Dreamcast.

[falviousuk]

Show me exactly where I said that MS was the first with online or a HDD. I said it wasnt SONY. The post i was replying to was trying to point out that MS are copying, I am jsut showing that everyone copies good ideas from everyone else.

But then again , you sony fanboys are so blinded to these facts, you continue to spout your utter nonsense as usual.

And thabnk you, yes I have enjoyed defense grid, it was a decent game when i purchased it.

continue your trolling as always, you certainly arent real gamers, just a load of complainers

[Imalwaysright]

Nope the games are free. You´re not paying for them, you´re paying for the service.

[Fireseed]

Glad they're learning but if they wanna offer the same on paper value as PS+ they're gonna have to go with a temporarily free thing to offer more games at once. Perhaps a mixture of free while you subscribe and like 1 permanently free game.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Thats a pretty good idea. The game on the 1st of the month is free to a Gold member. Then a few games offered up on the 16th that would only be available until the following 16th's release. You keep those as long as you are active XBLG.

If they really wanted to promote XBLG longevity they could create a program that gives temp games to any XBLG member monthly but if you have say more than 3yrs Gold status you can pick any game on offer in a month and make it yours for good...call it the XBLG Keeper Program.

Another idea, turn gamerscore into a commodity that can be traded in to MS for MS online store credits for use to buy a game through XBL.

[Fireseed]

The gamerscore system could almost be an alternative to the what Gamersgate.com does with it's blue coins.

But I'll tell ya the ONE thing Microsoft can do with their power and instantly put themselves above and beyond any other platofrm (even as a PC gamer) is to open up the market. Have the ability to buy your games from Steam or Origin. Have competing platforms on the Xbox so prices get driven down.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

@WinterSoldier To clarify you are saying they could offer say Halo 5 to be sold on Steam, Origin, Amazon, XBL ...any of those online markets to be sold digitally and would activate the game on your XBL account to be only playable through the Xbox One? Interesting idea.

[Fireseed]

Yeah! I mean Origin allows you to buy copies of games for your 360 and Ps3 (granted they're physical copies. But if they allowed Origin and Steam to have apps in the X1 it wouldn't be such a closed market and as always competition is better for consumers. They could truly extend beyond the capabilities of the X1 by open up the platform for other services to pave the way.

[mayberry]

When this program was originally announced I thought the statement about the games being released was kind of vague. I also thought to myself that it would be in MS best interest to stick with those two titles or else be even more scrutinized. Oh well....

[drsfinest72]

It took psn a whole Generation to catch up on features that Xbox live been had. So now Xbox live is catching up on certain psh stuff now. So same shit

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

This is true, but not a good thing at all. PSN and PS+ were INTRODUCED this generation and already on par with a lot of XBL features, and ahead of them in some regards too.(minus the dedicated servers, I wish Sony would pick up that number).

The issue is, throughout the 360 lifecycle they made no effort to make XBL better than it is.

[FarCryLover182]

Major Nelson really needs to watch what he says on Reddit. They will remember everything that he says and hold his word to it.

[Droidbro]

MS is really blowing it. It's essentially a complete repeat of the PS3 launch but with the Xbox One. MS ain't doing themselves any favors.

[ThyPizzaGod]

"May"

[Cueil]

No body wants free games go eff yourself MS!!!11!11!!!11!!!!one!!!!!ele ven!!!

[turgore]

He should shut up. Its a pathetic attempt when compared to PS+.

[stage88]

This is getting really tedious now.

MS just keep f'ing up every chance they get. Even though I'm not a MS fan it's annoying that I have to see article after article crop up as I look at gaming sites on the internet about how they keep f'ing up.

Gamers, put them out of their misery and let a more deserving company take their spot in the big three.