Kicking and Screaming: the End of Xbox Live Gold
Kicking and Screaming: The End of Xbox Live Gold
Well, my fellow Xbox friends, it is the end of an era for all of us… Microsoft has finally announced the end of the Xbox Live Gold online service. After over two decades of defining the console multiplayer experience, Xbox Live Gold will fully transition into a lower-paid tier of the Xbox Game Pass service called “Game Pass Core”… and with this change, several of the defining features of Xbox Live Gold will be left behind. First, the good news… while nobody truly ENJOYS paying money simply for the right to enjoy the multiplayer elements of their purchased games with others, at least the annual price is remaining the same. And this new “Game Pass Core” experience will include several popular Game Pass titles in the price of admission, with roughly two dozen games ranging from Among Us to Halo 5 as an added bonus. But this change doesn’t come without losing one of the defining features of Xbox Live Gold over the years, and one of my personal favorites… the three to four free games that were included each month.
Now, to be fair, many of these monthly “free games” were either older titles from the Xbox 360 era, low-budget recent releases, or perhaps under-performing titles trying to squeeze one last drop of relevance from their life span before disappearing from the public consciousness. Sometimes they were a game I already owned. But receiving these “free games” as a part of my paid membership gave me the feeling of truly “getting something of value” for my $60 annual subscription… especially when I don’t personally get to take advantage of the online multiplayer experience on a monthly basis as often as I used to. Even if the monthly options weren’t the most compelling (or even presented a game I would ever actually PLAY), they gave me a perception of value that I at least received SOMETHING this month in exchange for my loyalty to this service from day one. And on multiple occasions I was pleasantly surprised by the fun I would have with a game I would have never previously tried (or at least purchased at its’ full retail price) if it wasn’t provided to me in this manner. And now that those days are coming to an end, there is only one thing left to do… decide how I want to respond.
Many times in our real-world lives we will be faced with this exact same feeling… an unappreciated and unwelcome fork in the road that represents a dramatic shift to the status quo we have enjoyed for years. The slow and steady march of our path in life eventually leads us to an inevitable change that cannot be avoided, delayed, or denied… and in many of these instances, the decision on what we are going to do is made for us. There is no room for negotiation, no opportunity to ask for an extension to the deadline… there is simply “the change” and our response to it. In the case of Xbox Live Gold, we all saw the signs that indicated the “intentional sunsetting” of this service for years…from the first announcement of the Game Pass service, it was apparent that the days of the seemingly separate “Xbox Live Gold” service were numbered. As more titles were added to Microsoft’s Game Pass, we saw that the quality of games offered as part of the “monthly free games” slowly started to deteriorate. And as Microsoft continued to acquire entire development studios such as Bethesda and Activision Blizzard and place their archive of titles on the Game Pass service, it became clear that Microsoft’s priority to support their Game Pass service was not simply a passing fad… this is the virtual battlefield that they will be fighting the console war on for years to come. All of these actions from Microsoft were clearly telegraphing their intent to reinvent their online experience and replace Xbox Live Gold with the Game Pass service, and now that time has finally come. And as consumers, this eventuality moves us past the valley of decision (Do not pass Go, Do not collect $200) and into the place of choosing HOW we will react to this paradigm shift.
Following the Lord through the “shadow of the valley of death” tends to be a whole lot easier when we have made our way there through our own poor decisions… at that point, we are typically looking for ANY way out and are more willing to accept His guidance regardless of how disruptive it might be. But when we are simply minding our own business and the track shifts on us in an irreversible manner, the removal of our “autonomy” typically results in a bit more “kicking and screaming” than humble displays of appreciation and gratitude. And the best example of “kicking and screaming” in the entire Bible is found in the account of the prophet Jonah, the servant of the Lord who was given a task that he wanted NOTHING to do with. But his obedience to this mission was non-negotiable… he was going to do it one way or another. The only choice Jonah had in the matter was if he chose to accept this mission with a cheerful heart and how comfortable he was going to be while accomplishing it.
Jonah 1:1-4 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up.
Jonah 1:15-17 So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and took vows. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Jonah 2:10 and 3:1-3a So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.
The Lord presented Jonah with the unwanted assignment of going to Nineveh and preaching to the people who lived there. But Jonah possessed a rebellious attitude towards this mission because he didn’t want the people of that city to repent (Jonah 4:1-4)… they were an exceedingly sinful population who had caused great hardship to Jonah’s people. So Jonah tried to “go his own way”, booked a cruise in the opposite direction, and experienced the kind of “divine interruption” that makes the Xbox Live transition to Game Pass look tame in comparison. The Lord sent Jonah right back to the “start space” courtesy of his own special ocean Uber service (pardon the smell), and on his second roll Jonah decided to move forward and the rest is history. While there are many lessons to pull from Jonah’s story of finally accepting the inevitable, the most important is also the most obvious… one way or another, Jonah was GOING to Nineveh. And once there, he was going to share a message that would change the lives of the people there, whether he liked it or not. Jonah’s life would serve the Lord’s greater purpose… all that remained was how he chose to accept it and how painful the journey was to get there.
The story of Samson (Judges 13-16) provides a similarly unfortunate “cautionary tale” of demonstrating a casual disregard to following the guidance of the Lord with an obedient heart and ultimately serving the Lord’s will in a way that was much more difficult and painful than it had to be. Samson was born to serve as a deliverer of his people from the oppressive rule of the Philistines, but Samson treated his gifts as well as his mission with a carelessness that crossed over from arrogance to disobedience. One way or another, Samson was destined to provide the people of Israel with a victory over these evil overlords… but his flagrant disregard for the path to this outcome led to him doing this the hard way. Stripped of his sight, forced into imprisonment, and made into a laughingstock, Samson eventually served the Lord’s purpose as he literally brought the house down in his final performance… but if he hadn’t fallen into Delilah’s trap, he could have gotten to this same place of eventual obedient service SO many different and better ways.
The gifts and callings of the Lord are irrevocable (Romans 11:29)… which is good news for those of us who have lost our way many times the way that I have, but also challenging news because it means that one way or another, we will ALL serve the calling that He has placed on our lives regardless of our comfort level with it or desire to do it. The infamous phrase made popular by Mission Impossible of “your mission, should you choose to accept it” is not typically in the cards for us. Our mission is OUR mission whether we choose to accept it or not… from the very beginning it has been proven over and over again that we will ALL serve the Lord’s purposes on this planet. From Balaam to Samson, Caiphas the high priest to Caesar himself, every one of us from the highest to the lowest will bend the knee to the Lord one way or another… in this life (Romans 13:1-6) as well as the life to come (Romans 14:11). The Father’s plan WILL be accomplished, and His will is going to be done on earth as well as in heaven (Isaiah 46:10)… all we control is our attitude and the willingness of our service towards the achievement of it. We can get there the easy way or the hard way… but ALL of us, regardless of our belief in the Lord or willingness to obey Him, will ultimately fulfill the plan He has put in place for us. Whether we choose to go kicking and screaming or with a cheerful and willing heart is the only choice we have in the matter. We can be happy, mad, appreciative, or bitter… it won’t change the inevitable. But our attitude towards it WILL have an impact on us… and in our service to the Lord they WAY we choose to OBEY matters to Him just as much as our actual service does (1 Chronicles 28:9, 2 Corinthians 9:7).
1 Chronicles 28:9 As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever.
2 Corinthians 9:7 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.
Whether we saw and were aware of the signs that indicated that Xbox was slowly shifting their Xbox Live Gold service to evolve into the Game Pass service or not, one thing is for certain… it is happening. The change is inevitable, and all that remains to us is choosing how we are going to respond to it. If we want to continue participating in the multiplayer experiences that Microsoft offers, we will all have to accept these new terms of service. For some of us, we may consider this an improvement on what we were previously receiving, and for “day one” Xbox Live Gold members like me, this may present a shift that we would not have chosen if given a say in the matter. But my preference doesn’t have any impact on the reality that one is going away, and something new is here to stay… I just have to choose the attitude that I possess as I move into this “new normal”. I can still appreciate what once existed, and I still possess a massive archive of “Games with Gold” in my library that I acquired over the years that will remain mine for as long as I keep my service up to date. And who knows if this new Game Pass future will provide me with even MORE games to play and choose from than I would have ever received from the meager offerings of the “free monthly games” I was accustomed to. But the future is here, so for me and my house, it looks like we will be subscribing to the Microsoft Game Pass… and I might as well do it with a smile on my face. And in our real-world lives we will all end up serving the Lord’s will… we can do it with joy in our hearts or we can do it kicking and screaming all the way to the finish line. But we will ALL fulfill His purpose… and out story will either serve as an inspiration to others or a cautionary tale. The choice of HOW we react to it? Well, that is the part that is up to us… ultimately, it is the ONLY choice that truly is. 🙂
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