Microsoft does not allow people to play free games online without an Xbox Live Gold membership. Earlier this year, however, the gaming giant announced that it would remove this restriction.

That day has finally arrived for Xbox players: as announced via Xbox Wire, starting today, free-to-play games on the Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox One will be completely free to play online with friends. This is a major change in Microsoft's handling of online services, and a belated one, as none of Xbox's competitors have similar restrictions on free-to-play titles.

This will also be a blow of sorts for Sony's PS5 and PlayStation Plus services, as a major advantage over Xbox Live has always been unlimited access to free-to-play games. Currently, both services allow users to play a wide variety of free-to-play titles without paying a monthly subscription fee; the same is true for the Nintendo Switch and, of course, PC.

The changes affect more than 50 free-to-play titles, and the full list can be found on Xbox.com, but the most important games include "Fortnite," "Apex Legends," "Rocket League," "Roblox," "Call of Duty: Warzone" and other blockbuster titles. For gamers who are hooked on these titles, the ability to cancel their Xbox Live subscriptions (and put more of that money into V-Bucks!) ) will surely be a relief.

It is worth remembering that this consumer-friendly change was not necessarily brought about for purely altruistic reasons. In January of this year, Microsoft announced a significant price increase for Xbox Live Gold.

The move was thought to be intended to persuade gamers to opt for Xbox Game Pass subscriptions instead, but the announcement was met with fierce backlash and the proposed price change was quickly withdrawn after 24 hours, while a change to free-to-play games was announced.

This change to the Xbox Live policy definitely feels like a calculated olive branch from Microsoft, which has overstepped its limits, but nonetheless remains a great addition for consumers. Xbox Live Gold will also bring it one step closer to parity with PlayStation Plus, which was just announced earlier today to approach 50 million active subscribers.