What Does Xbox Live Gold Do

How Do I Set Up Xbox Live Gold With A Prepaid Card

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What Is Xbox Live Gold And Is It Worth It

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If you have an Xbox One or Xbox 360, Microsofts Xbox Live Gold service is required to play multiplayer games online. A subscription costs $10 per month or $60 per year. Xbox Live Gold also includes additional benefits, like free games every month and discounts on some digital games.

Keep An Eye Out For Free Trials

If youre still on the fence, Microsoft sometimes offers free trials of Xbox Live Gold with new consoles and some games. You may see a Try Gold For Free promotion for some free Xbox Live Gold time on your console, or you may have received a prepaid code you can redeem for trail time bundled with a game or console. However, theres no simple way to get a trial if your console doesnt offer one to you and you dont have a prepaid code. Youll need to sign up for the paid subscription instead.

When purchased from Microsoft, Xbox Live Gold costs $10 per month, $25 per three months , or $60 per year . If you plan on sticking with it for the long haul, the yearly subscription is the best dealalthough you cant cancel it and get your money back during the year youve paid for. Thats the catch.

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Overall, Xbox Live Gold certainly seems like a more valuable service than Microsofts separate Xbox Game Pass subscription, which costs $10 per month. It offers no discount for buying more time, still requires a paid Xbox Live Gold subscription to play games offline, and offers access to a library of games that includes many games that were previously offered for free via Games for Gold in the past.

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Xbox Live Gold Has Changed Is It Still Worth It

Microsoft has shaken up Xbox Live Gold with some major changes around free-to-play gaming on Xbox, leaving its perceived value more subjective than ever.

Xbox Live Gold is your gateway to multiplayer on console, with almost two decades the go-to Xbox subscription. With more games than ever built with multiplayer in mind, the online membership ensures you’re getting the best value from your Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S libraries.

But 2021 brings network-wide changes, shaking up the Xbox Live Gold offerings for the latest console generation. Microsoft has lifted the paywall for free-to-play content, axing the mandate for some of the most popular games on the market. Here’s what’s new with Xbox Live Gold for April 2021 and whether the subscription is right for you.

What Does Xbox One Gold Membership Give You

With an Xbox Live Gold subscription, you get access to Games with Gold, free games every month, and Deals with Gold, which gives members exclusive discounts on games in the Microsoft Store. You can join Xbox Live Gold at any time on your console. Just launch the Microsoft Store app and select Home > Subscriptions.

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Xbox 360 And Original Xbox Games

Players with active Xbox Live Gold memberships may download the games during their respective availability periods. When downloaded, the game belongs to the user even if they subsequently drop their Xbox Live Gold membership. Two titles are released a month, with the exception of June 2014 , April 2015 and December 2015 . The first game is free to download from the first of the month until the fifteenth, and then the second being available to download from the sixteenth until the end of the month.

Future Games with Gold releases for Xbox 360 are also made available for Xbox One through its backward compatibility system, which first started in November 2015.

2013

What Games Does Xbox Live Gold Offer

As mentioned above it will vary from month to month. As of this writing, the free games in the Games With Gold offer are Darksiders III, Yooka-Laylee, Lost Planet 3, and Garou: Mark Of The Wolves.

The dates for when these leave will vary by game title. And not all of them arrived at the same time. For instance, Both Lost Planet 3 and Darksiders III were available on August 1. And while Darksiders III will be available until August 31, Lost Planet 3 is only available until August 15. So just a few more days.

One day later though, on August 16, youll get access to Yooka-Laylee and Garou: Mark Of The Wolves. The former leaves September 15, while the latter leaves August 31. So make sure to claim your games by these dates. Or you lose out on getting them for free.

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Xbox Live Gold Vs Xbox Network

Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles allow you to create a free Xbox Network account . The basic service allows subscribers to access online multiplayer features in free-to-play games, download items from the Microsoft Store on Xbox, chat with friends one-on-one or in groups, and use popular entertainment apps like Netflix. It also provides access to apps like Internet Explorer, Skype, and OneDrive.

Xbox Live Gold subscribers get all the basic perks, plus a few extras, including:

• Access to online multiplayer for all games
• Discounts on digital titles at Deals with Gold
• Quicker access to demos and betas
• Free games at Games With Gold

Xbox Live Gold is not the same as Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft’s streaming games service. With Xbox Game Pass, subscribers can play more than 100 games anytime for a monthly fee.

What Happens When You Lose Xbox Live Gold On Xbox One

If you lost access to Xbox Live Gold on Xbox One, you might be in for some trouble. Here’s a look at what you can expect when your Gold has expired.

• You get to keep your Xbox 360 Xbox Live Gold games
• You can no longer play your Xbox One Xbox Live Gold games
• The majority of your Xbox 360 and Xbox One apps will still function without Xbox Live Gold
• Online play will be extremely limited with no Xbox Live Gold membership
• Xbox consoles will still be online after canceling Xbox Live Gold

Xbox Live Gold is a popular subscription service available on Microsofts Xbox 360 and Xbox One videogame consoles. Pricing varies by region but generally average around US$7 per month depending on the plan chosen.

Originally, an Xbox Live Gold membership was required to enjoy almost all online services on the Xbox 360 but soon after the arrival of the newer Xbox One console the plan evolved slightly and now media streaming is available to free members as well.

The evolution of Xbox Live Gold hasnt really affected continuing members all that much but for those who may be considering taking a break from the service due to travel plans or a need to save money, many wonder how exactly their console will be affected and what they will lose once their Xbox Live Gold membership is cancelled. Here is what happens.

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Do Xbox Live Gold Subscriptions Stack

If you purchase more than one 12 month Xbox Live Gold code online, can they be stacked on top of each other to end up with a subscription of multiple years? The answer is YES! You can redeem multiple 12-month cards or even lower amounts. As many as you like. When you redeem a second voucher, it will just add the time onto the existing time remaining with your gold subscription.

It is worth keeping in mind that when converting over to Gamepass Ultimate, it is not possible to do this for more than 36 months. If you have 5 years of Xbox Live gold, you will lose 2 years of it when you upgrade the account. So be very careful and make sure you do the math so that you do not end up losing some of your subscription time.

Xbox Is Still Planning To Drop Live Gold Its Claimed

Microsoft said to be waiting until Game Pass reaches milestone subs

Chris Scullion

Microsoft is reportedly still planning to discontinue Xbox Live Gold and make online multiplayer free.

Thats according to journalist Jeff Grubb, who had made the same claim last year when Xbox Live Gold was still required for free-to-play games.

Grubbs original argument was that since Halo Infinites multiplayer was going to be free-to-play, that would only make sense if Xbox Live Gold was removed.

However, Microsoft then announced in April that Xbox Live Gold was no longer required to play free-to-play multiplayer games, leading some to believe that Gold would remain as a requirement for other games.

Yesterday, during his premium GrubbSnax show on Giant Bomb, Grubb addressed the story again and stated his belief that the plans to drop Gold were still on the table at Xbox.

In the past, Ive said Xbox Live Gold is going to go away, and when I started saying that it was when Xbox Live Gold was still required for free-to-play games, he explained.

And I knew for a fact that they were going to make a change before Halo Infinite, and I thought at least it would be dropped for free-to-play games because they werent going to charge people to play Halo on Xbox when they werent charging you to play it on PC or whatever.

Then they decided to raise the price and it looked weird, right? Why would they do that if they were going to get rid of Xbox Live Gold?

Further reading

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What Kinds Of Discounts Do I Get With Xbox Live Gold

This will depend on the time. Right now you can pick up games like Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Legends of Eternal, The Surge, V-Rally 4 Ultimate Edition and others at varying discounted prices.

Ghost Recon Breakpoint for example is 85% off right now. So if you were interested in that title and have an Xbox Live Gold subscription, now is the time to pick it up. Lest you have to pay full price down the line.

Can You Convert Xbox Live Gold To Gamepass Multiple Times

Yes, you can! This is the best thing about it, but in order to do it a second time, you need to follow a strict procedure to ensure that you end up triggering the correct offer. Before we go into how to do this, the difference between doing it the first time and the second time is the price.

The first time you perform this conversion, it will cost you $1 to convert all of the time left in your Gold subscription to Gamepass. This is a one-time fee and is an incredible bargain. The second time you do it, you will have a similar one time fee, but the price goes up to $12.99. It is still a one-time fee, just a little more expensive. You will not have to do anything different. IT is the same process. When it gets to the checkout, the Xbox store will let you know how much you have to pay.

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Get Xbox Game Pass Ultimate For Only 1

Right now, you can get your first 3 months of Game Pass Ultimate for just £1 – that’s a healthy saving of 91%!

Game Pass Ultimate includes all the benefits of Xbox Live Gold, plus access to 100+ top-notch games for console, PC and Android devices, plus Xbox Game Studio titles on the day of release, free in-game content and exclusive member discounts.

If you just purchased an Xbox Series X or Series S, it’s a no brainer especially for a quid. .

After you’ve enjoyed the first three months for only £1, your Game Pass will auto-renew on a rolling £10.99 per month contract. There’s lock-in contract, so you can cancel at anytime no pressure.

Xbox Series X And Series S

• Xbox Series X

The Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S are developed by . They were both released on November 10, 2020 as the fourth generation of the console family, succeeding the family. Along with Sony’s , also released in November 2020, the Xbox Series X and Series S are part of the .

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How To Convert Xbox Live Gold To Gamepass Ultimate

So to perform this you will need to ensure that you do not already have an existing Gamepass ultimate subscription. If you do, you will need to cancel the reoccurring payment and wait until it has expired before you will be able to take advantage of this offer.

Start by purchasing Xbox Live Gold. I would recommend you purchase three years upfront if you can afford it. This will allow you to maximize the value of the offer and convert three years or 36 months of Xbox Live Gold into 36 months of Gamepass Ultimate for the one upfront price.

You can purchase 12 month Xbox Live Gold subscriptions from CDKeys for the lowest price on the market. You will likely be paying around 150 for three years of Gold. Once converted to Gamepass, this will work out at 4.19 per month. An incredible amount of money to save.

So to get started converting Xbox Gold to Gamepass Ultimate, purchase the longest Xbox Live Gold subscription you can afford. You will pay $1 whether you have 2 months of gold or 36 months. Keep in mind that 36 months is the maximum amount of Gold that you can convert to Gamepass.

How Many Games Do Subscribers Get For Free Each Month

This will vary, but it seems to be from one to three games on average. It will not always be the same amount of games every month either.

Sometimes the games given out for free are newer titles. Other times theyre indie titles that werent that much to begin with. The point being that its important to stay on top of which games are being given out every single month. And its even better to know the moment Microsoft confirms the lineup. So you can avoid buying something that you may be getting for free soon.

If youve got the Xbox app installed on your smartphone, you can usually find out what the games are from this app.

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Is The Xbox Live Gold Price Worth It

If you want to play online, you need to grab yourself an Xbox Live Gold subscription to do so. However, if you’re not looking for multiplayer, you might be struggling for reasons to pick up a new service.

One of those reasons may be the Games with Gold program which offers free Xbox titles every month in a similar vein to Sony’s own PlayStation Plus offerings. This is included with your Xbox Live Gold membership, so if you regularly find yourself looking for something new to play there are some benefits here.

Plus, those Xbox Live Gold member discounts will come in handy if you’re a regular shopper, so if you’re spending a lot on that digital marketplace you may well make back the Xbox Live Gold price overall.

You Need Xbox Live Gold For Multiplayer Gaming

If you want to play online multiplayer on your Xbox One or Xbox 360, you will need Xbox Live Gold. Your subscription also enables access to the party system and voice chat. If you try to use the online mutiplayer features within games without Xbox Live Gold, youll be stopped in your tracks and told you need Xbox Live Gold to continue.

This service isnt necessary for playing single-player games, and it isnt required when playing multiplayer games offline. For example, you dont need to pay anything to play a split-screen game with two people in the same room on the same console.

Xbox Live Gold also isnt required if you want to watch Netflix and Hulu, or use other media-streaming apps. For example, In the Xbox 360 daysand even when the Xbox One launchedyou needed to pay both the Netflix subscription fee and the Xbox Live Gold subscription fee just to watch Netflix on your Xbox One, but Microsoft changed this. Xbox Live Gold is now only useful to gamers.

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