April 1st to kick off 1st free Xbox Live weekend [Update 2]
by Dan Choi 
{ Feb 23rd 2006 at 11:14PM }
According to 1UP, Saturday, April 1st
will mark the first free weekend of Xbox Live Gold play for currently Silver 360 owners.While the news sounds suspiciously like an April Fools' Day trick, free Live weekends were something that Microsoft touted early on to entice us to jump on the paid bandwagon.
If MS goes through with the promotion, noncommittal gamers will have 72 hours to check out the service and see what the Gold-level fuss is all about. No further free weekends have apparently been announced.
[Update: Oh, and just in case you folks were wondering why Verizon's logo was in the image above, they're sponsoring the free weekend. Also, we were looking at 2005 instead of 2006 for that day, so thanks for the correction, John! The latest update to this story's been posted here.]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Darth Pixel @ Feb 23rd 2006 11:42PM
Smart move...this should be a true test...
It should tell us:
1. How many Silver accounts could potentially be interested in subscribing.
2. If the Xbox Live infrastructure can scale without problem.
Contrary to popular belief, I am not convinced price is the main obstacle for aspiring Gold subscribers.
ill trooper @ Feb 23rd 2006 11:43PM
Even more spazzy kid potential? Yikes.
C4n U h33r //3 n0//?
Gin @ Feb 23rd 2006 11:45PM
I want my free weekends B!@#!
PuffMac user @ Feb 24th 2006 12:07AM
Nintendo is doing something similar but istead of weekends they are offering free online gaming forever.
http://www.nintendowifi.com
Asz @ Feb 24th 2006 12:28AM
Maybe the joke is that its actually free forever now? This would be a great way to get people who normally wouldn't care less if they could play online, to do so.
Ian @ Feb 24th 2006 1:17AM
Nintendo compared to live is laughable (friend codes anyone?).
Osiris @ Feb 24th 2006 3:55AM
What about us loyal subscriptors? When do we get some special treatment?
Twist @ Feb 24th 2006 3:55AM
I have an additional idea that would compliment this one. Free weekends for new releases. When a hot new game with Live support comes out the first weekend or two you should be able to play this game (and only this game) on Live for free. This would let Silver users see how much value having a Gold account would add to this game. Of course hopefully Xbox Live Gold will eventually be free for everyone and they will just make their money through premium downloadable content (or worst case in-game advertising).
Vince - UK @ Feb 24th 2006 4:23AM
Lambs to the slaughter!
I wonder how much they'll enjoy the experience when they realize the amazing gaming skills they thought they had, are in fact those of a n00b in comparison.
They'll probably come away feeling depressed.
Offline gaming is soooo 20th century.
brit @ Feb 24th 2006 6:00AM
what's better about Gold? Anybody here think it's worth it? Discuss...
Stuka @ Feb 24th 2006 9:34AM
Well, with Gold you can play online whenever the hell you feel like it. So yeah, it's worth it for me.
It's funny to still see people talk about all these obnoxious pre-pubescent kids being on Live. I used to hear the same thing about the old Live and thought "Well, there's not way I'm paying to play with people like that" but now that I'm on Live with 360, I think I've run into maybe 3 people like that since November. The trick is to develop a network of people you know aren't like that and start building a quality friends list. I've got about 40 people in mine now and there is at least 10 online whenever I sign on, so there is always someone to play against that isn't some whiney 8 year old.
John @ Feb 24th 2006 9:53AM
April 1st is a Saturday.
The1 @ Feb 24th 2006 10:46AM
Verizon, why are they sponsoring? This is crazy.
Dan Choi @ Feb 24th 2006 6:12PM
"April 1st is a Saturday."
Thanks for that note, John! I was looking at the calendar for 2005 instead of the one for 2006 when I looked up the date, so I screwed up which day of the week was initially involved with the weekend (originally writing Friday instead of Saturday in the post). The correction's been noted, with a link added to the latest update, too. Thanks again.