Xbox Series X game software may soon be $70 a piece, but that's cheap compared to the price of a year's worth of Xbox Live Gold memberships. As of today (January 22), the cheapest Xbox Live Gold membership costs $60 for six months, a staggering change from yesterday's price, which covered a year at $60.

Now that the price of Xbox Live Gold has essentially doubled, there are several ways to keep the old price, but only if you are already a subscriber. This information comes from the official Xbox Wire blog, where Microsoft defends its decision in a variety of ways.

The company claims that Xbox Live needs better infrastructure and that its prices have not changed meaningfully in over a decade in some markets.

The blog dances around the fact that the price of the least expensive Xbox Live Gold option has doubled, but offers several ways to avoid the price increase, at least for the time being.

First, let's do some math. Until yesterday, the cost of an Xbox Live Gold membership was $10 for one month, $25 for three months, and $60 for 12 months. Starting today, it's $11 for one month, $30 for three months, and $60 for six months; there is no 12-month option, so the cheapest 12-month subscription would be two 6-month packages for a total of $120.

Don't expect to save money on shorter subscriptions; a 12-month package at $11 per subscription is $132, or four 3-month packages at $30 per subscription is $120.

If you think these price increases are extreme, a) you are not alone. The only catch is that you must already be a 6 or 12 month Xbox Live Gold subscriber. If not, you should buy a physical or digital code from a third party ASAP.

The first way is to renew your 6- or 12-month membership on your Xbox account page. It will renew at the current price. The sooner you set your account to auto-renew, the better, as Microsoft probably won't keep this option open forever. (Remember, if you don't like it now, it will be expensive to re-subscribe later.)

The second option is to upgrade your Xbox Live Gold membership to an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership. There is no additional fee for this feature, and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate offers the features of Xbox Live Gold plus a game distribution library. Xbox Live Gold alone.

While this may sound like a ploy to turn Xbox Live Gold subscribers into full members of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, Microsoft's focus on Game Pass features is not exactly a secret.

GamePass is arguably at the heart of the Xbox ecosystem, tying together the Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC, and Xbox Android apps. The program will soon be expanded to include non-gaming PC and iOS. If you want full access to the full game library for a flat fee, it's worth it. It's a very hard pill to swallow for those who are used to getting the benefits of Gold for half the price.