Microsoft offering Silver members one month of Xbox Live Gold for $1

by Randy Nelson on Jun 17th 2009 10:45PM

No, Xbox Live Silver members, that's not a massive typo you're seeing on the dashboard's Spotlight channel. Microsoft really is offering one month of Gold membership for $1 to US users. Of course, it's a "limited-time offer" -- and when that month's up, you'll be automatically charged for the next 11 months of membership (which you can opt out of). The last time MS offered a deal on Gold membership was back in March, where Silver users were offered one year of the good stuff for $39.99, $10 off the regular price.

[Thanks, Sam!]

Tags: deals, Microsoft, Xbox-360, xbox-live, xbox-live-gold

Reader Comments (78)

Can you opt out of the recurring fees from the dashboard, or do you still have to call customer support and go through the phone tree garbage?

You have to call in. Have fun!

Wait, seriously? You can't opt out from your console? Are all 1 month subscriptions like that? That's seriously stupid.

Last I checked, the only way to opt out was to call them... if that is not the case currently, I'm interested in this. (For future reference, anyway; I'm completely fine with being subscribed for now)

Don't put your credit card into xbox live! They are total dicks trying to do anything... they banned my account because I didn't pay them for another year. Is that even right?!

Still gotta call to opt out. It's a bullshit system.

Probs have to call them.
This is why you go for the prepaid cards...

@swagman i have the auto pay thing going on right now, and i have for some time now, but if i wanted to get a 12 month card through newegg.com or amazong or something and i input that into my dash would the autopay still take out of my account even after i've put it another 12 months???

You want to know what I've never understood? Why can't MS Points be used to buy XBL subscriptions when they can be used for everything else? I wasn't planning on getting this, but I have $40 in my account right now and yet I wouldn't be able to get this if I wanted to since I don't have a credit card. It doesn't make sense, if you ask me.

It's because you've already paid for your MS points. To get a new XBL subscription you're forced to give them more cash. Typical Microsoft.

What they need to do is offer it for free or at the very least drop it down to $30.

you're lucky. We pay 60€ (+/- $80 US)

If you're paying € 60 that's your fault, you can find it online for around €35. Yes, Europe-compatible subscription cards.

For U.S. people, Xbox live 12 month card for 39.99 with free shipping.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16874103129

The way the service is behaving after yesterday's outage, $1 is too much.

Same thing happening for me. Which is a shame, because I was really excited to play Rocket Riot. Another thing is, I can't use Netflix. It gives me an error when I try to update. What's the deal, Microsoft?

Live was down yesterday for scheduled maintenance.

Really Harry? We had no clue!!

Anyways, yeah after the update I can't download any arcade games either, although my Netflix works just fine.

Not fixed where I'm at... Sam & Max.. here I don't go =(

Esc, you are making it sound like it took your money and didn't return it or give you the game download. Did you mean that the DL didn't work art first but later did? I doubt they are taking the points and then not honoring the purchases made, since you can delete a game from your HD and later DL it again.

...Silver accounts... I thought they were a mere myth.. :d

Nah, I seen wunna tham up in the hills... shot it n' strung 'er up in my gee-rawj.

I have a silver as why pay for online if you also have a PS3

So glad I have a ps3. Don't have to pay to play online. bwahahaha! Yes I went there.

There are names for people who like 'hand outs'...

@ Mazrael

So you're saying that PSN is practically a poor man's online gaming source?

Well, I'm glad you convinced me. For a second there I almost believed that games like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare played exactly the same online for PSN and XBL. No wonder that price tag is there!

"So you're saying that PSN is practically a poor man's online gaming source?

Well, I'm glad you convinced me. For a second there I almost believed that games like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare played exactly the same online for PSN and XBL. No wonder that price tag is there!"

@Jarhead

I really hate this argument. PS3 fanboys always use that game as an example when they damn well know a lot of the games of PS3 don"t even have a proper friend invite. Shit until the update the other day it was hard to play with friends on Killzone and it stil isnt all that great. What about MGS? it has its own friends list separate from PSN, shit I can name a few more but those are just their flag ship titles.

It's a shame that when my buddies and I want to jump on any online game on PS3 we boot up our 360s and use the party system there just so we can get in a room together.

Please stop with the bullshit, Live is so much more than just online multiplayer.

they should let silver members have access to every part of the game they paid for, they can charge whatever for the rest. i've never had a problem getting into a game of killzone with someone on my list, they have made it easier to stick together recently. as for mgs, if they don't want to go through psn it's on them. i think they could have more players if they did but they have the dedicated fans.

is this in canada??

And MS rakes in a lot of cash as the participants forget to cancel their subscriptions. Genius!

Not just for the US, i just logged into my xbox live account from the AU site and can also get the offer :)

Hmm... my wife created a new account two days ago and got 1 month free.

All new Live accounts give you a month free.

Hmmm... I just tried making a new account on a friends' 360 and it only threw priced XBL options in my face.

Is there a 'limit' to the number of XBL Gold accounts on a console, or the number of accounts period?

Each Xbox 360 comes with a free month of gold for three different accounts created on the console

I'm pretty sure it's 5 accounts, not just 3... :S

On mine it was only 3.

"Hmmm... I just tried making a new account on a friends' 360 and it only threw priced XBL options in my face."

You choose Silver, then you'll get a month free.

play online...and early demo access.....and soon last.fm....and that free avatar game

My mother and siblings are interested in playing, but not paying. Maybe MS should add a "Master account" on each 360 so every account can have gold on that one box, but recovering it on another will just make it silver.

I just bought the $1 month today and they charged me $2.

You don't get early demo access. They just make Silver accounts wait somewhere between 1-7 days before downloading it. Unless of course you have a PS3, when you get the same 'early access' demo at the same time as XBL Gold subscribers. And for the guy waiting 2 hours to update a game: Either you are full of shit or you have a terribly slow connection.

Some people don't know the meaning of FREE. Although, 10 min. is a lot of time to take a shit. Or you can watch this vid 3x

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFZ1HkYT1Bk

OR you can watch this twice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV9RgxRmhgM&feature=channel_page

Be warned: once you start watching, you WILL end up watching the whole 5 minutes.

I will have to give this a try.

13 months on Amazon right now for $38.97, get it while it's hot!

It's almost always that much on Amazon. It's when they drop it to about $30 that you need to run like hell for it.

Small, but important correction: Once your $1 month is up, they don't charge you for an extra 11 months. They start charging you the regular monthly fee of $7.99 a month (which adds up to $95.88 per year).

From the email they sent me: "You can also upgrade to a longer-term subscription to get Gold for a little over $4 per month. Users can cancel auto renewal by visiting www.xbox.com/live/accounts."

Which is why, if you want gold level, the card or the chat package is a better value. Personally I held off from getting gold for long time, from the days of my original Xbox.

Some things cost too much. In this case, it costs too little. For some people (who might be willing to pay a fair amount) a dollar may seem a little stupid and micro-fee-ish. Although the service is awesome, a dollar is a hassle to pay.

This is my perspective, but I'm sure there's people like me out there.

Just make it free Microsoft! A dollar is a lose-lose situation!

Charging $1 ensures they can find a valid credit card to charge once they auto-renew you. Making it free is less of an assurance to them that the card would be valid -

how r they supposed to auto-renew people who forget to call in to cancel without a good payment method? ;)

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Microsoft offering Silver members one month of Xbox Live Gold for $1

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