Multiplayer without baggage.
Microsoft has started to test multiplayer access inside free-to-play games on Xbox without the need for an Xbox Live subscription.
Available to those in the Alpha Skip Ahead and Alpha Xbox Insider rings, the feature was announced back in January 2021 after Microsoft tried raising the price of Xbox Live across the board.
It’s very much a work in progress — though they meet the criteria, titles including Destiny 2 and Call of Duty Warzone will still require Xbox Live at this time.
Microsoft is also testing access to Party Chat and its Looking for Groups features without an Xbox Live subscription as well.
If you’re taking part in the test, you can check out known issues for both the Alpha and Alpha Skip Ahead rings.
In other recent news, Microsoft has renamed the Xbox Live infrastructure service to Xbox Network in order to differentiate it from Xbox Live subscriptions.
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