Microsoft has agreed to discontinue the Xbox Live brand after nearly 18 years of disappointing support. Members of the brand's opt-in program, who have the ability to get early access to unreleased Xbox functionality, have confirmed catching a few glimpses of new branding beginning to appear in the Xbox dashboard recently. Some videos have also been posted that show the transition from Xbox Live to Xbox Network. After a brief delay, Microsoft has announced the name change.

After a brief delay, Microsoft has announced the name change.

The Xbox Network is the underlying online service offered by the home game console, which was revised in the "Microsoft Services Agreement" in August. To put it succinctly, the company's new Xbox Network online service is even more descriptive. There will be few changes to the framework, functionality, and subscriptions resulting from the branding transition. The overall experience offered by the online service will remain unchanged.

"Xbox Live is not going anywhere. We are constantly making changes to build a clearer, more descriptive messaging framework for Xbox in various areas. As part of these changes, none of these interactions or functionality will change." Microsoft announced in a tweet.

The company has confirmed that there are no plans to discontinue Xbox Live Gold, but it does mean that there will be less focus on the service itself following the reverse decision from their price hike. The Xbox Network will have a much-simplified user interface, which will make it stand out from the previous version. 

The game console's underlying online service has been dubbed Xbox Live since its launch in November 2002, with no changes until now. The online service was the most innovative way of bringing players together for a gaming session when it first launched.

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