Xbox’s Live changes for free-to-play games is now available to all Insiders

Xbox is now one step closer to removing its Live Gold subscription requirements for free-to-play games, as it’s now letting all Insiders test the new feature.

Now available to Omega Insiders, the change not only removes the Live Gold requirement to play free-to-play games, but it also now allows anyone to utilize the Looking 4 Groups feature and join Party Chat. However, there are certain notable titles that do not currently support the free-to-play testing, including Destiny 2 and Call of Duty: Warzone.

The update to the Insider program also enables the new Subscription Management features on console, and it fixes an issue where some game disc content would not properly install.

These tests first started for Alpha Insiders on March 25th, so we might see these changes roll out to all users by early May. Xbox first made the decision to remove the Live Gold requirements for free-to-play games after facing a ton of backlash following its announcement that it planned on increasing the price for its online subscription service back in January.

We seem to be in the middle of a transitionary period for Xbox Live. It’s even removed most of the Xbox Live branding that was previously found in the Xbox’s UI. Given the amount of money that Microsoft is investing in first-party studios—most notably with its Bethesda acquisition—and the launch titles they’ll be bringing to Game Pass, Xbox seems to want its users to transition to Game Pass Ultimate, which combines Game Pass and Xbox Live Gold into one package.