After more than 18 years, Microsoft will soon change its name to Xbox Live. The service will be called the Xbox network. Some of the first mentions of the name change came from beta testers on the new Xbox dashboard, however, Microsoft has already confirmed the changes on its own.
In a statement to The Verge, a Microsoft spokesman said: “’Xbox Network’ refers to the underlying Xbox online service, which has been updated in the Microsoft Services Agreement. The upgrade from ‘Xbox Live’ to ‘Xbox network’ aims to distinguish the underlying service from Xbox Live Gold subscriptions. ”
In other words, the new name of the service refers to the underlying system that connects the consoles to the internet, not to the subscription players that use for online games (which will still be called Xbox Live Gold). But it still represents a change in a name that has existed since the original Xbox in 2002. It is unclear when exactly that name change will take full effect.
This is not the only change that Microsoft is bringing to its online services this year. The company briefly considered raising the price of Xbox Live Gold subscriptions, but after protests from fans, the idea was dropped. Instead, Microsoft went so far as to say that in the near future players won’t even have to pay for Xbox Live Gold to play free online games. According to Microsoft, this change is expected to take effect sometime “in the coming months”.