Microsoft is dropping the Xbox Live Gold paywall for many of its entertainment apps, but free-to-play games and MMOs like The Elder Scrolls Online will still require a subscription, Microsoft head Phil Spencer recently told Joystiq.

The paywall longer impacts services such as Netflix, HBO Go, Skype, Twitch and Internet Explorer. Free-to-play games include Happy Wars and World of Tanks, while The Elder Scrolls Online already asks for a monthly subscription fee due to regular and "significant" updates, on top of the Xbox Live Gold requirement.

According to Spencer, Microsoft "hasn't changed its policy" on MMOs and free-to-play games. Spencer added that some games include "engineering constraints, policy constraints and partner constraints in each one of these scenarios."

"So today, the announcement is about the entertainment applications being available to all Xbox Live members," Spencer told Joystiq. "It was really about going as fast as we could on the things that we completely controlled."

Source:

http://www.polygon.com/2014/5/14/5717156/mmos-free-to-play-games-xbox-live-gold-paywall

Neogaf:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=819019

lock if old

No shit. Those are games. They always maintained gaming would be behind the wall. Only thing moved up are the entertainment/non-gaming apps.

Not much of an F2P when you have to pay just to acess it. ^^ P2PF2P

Well it's not the same as the PS4 then is it?

You can play F2P and MMO games on PS4 online without PS+? Pretty sure it requires the paywall as well.

No it doesn't require it.

So you can play an MMO online game without paying for the online gaming access? That doesn't make sense.

I don't think it does.

I don't give a crap either way, I am done with MMO's and rarely ever touch F2P games. But it seems silly for them to keep the paywall up.

Final Fantasy XIV is a sub based MMO on PS4 and doesn't require PS+

Ah correction, not sure about MMO but F2P is up to publisher (which publisher will put it behind a paywall?):

Update: Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, told Polygon that the PlayStation Plus subscription requirement is up to publishers for free-to-play PS4 games. "As far as free-to-play games are concerned, it's a publisher's decision whether they put it inside or outside of the PlayStation Plus requirements," he said.

http://www.polygon.com/2013/6/13/4424908/dc-universe-online-planetside-2-ps4-playstation-plus-not-required