After nearly two decades of Xbox Live, Microsoft renames service to Xbox Network
The start of a new console generation usually comes with a few changes, but this is a pretty major overhaul. Xbox Live, which has been the name of every Xbox console’s online service, ever since the beginning back in 2001 will be no more. Following a beta dashboard update for the Xbox Series X|S, in which every instance of “Xbox Live” had been changed to the “Xbox Network”, news outlet The Verge reached out to the company for clarification. Microsoft confirmed the name change to The Verge, stating that the change intends to differentiate the general online features of Xbox systems from its Xbox Live Gold memberships.
“’Xbox network’ refers to the underlying Xbox online service, which was updated in the Microsoft Services Agreement,” says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. “The update from ‘Xbox Live’ to ‘Xbox network’ is intended to distinguish the underlying service from Xbox Live Gold memberships.”
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