Discounted Xbox Live subscription cards available from Amazon, Newegg and others

For anyone that doesn't know, you an almost always find these for a cheaper-than-retail price on Ebay. Plus, you can sometimes get the seller to just email you the redemption code and skip the shipping process

@GiantGamer

Yeah cause not playing games at all is so much better then if you just couldn't play online...

@MystileArmor

Or you know...he could be gaming on the PS3, PC, or Wii....durp :P

If Amazon were smart (and they usually are) they would cut the price to $29.99. Just to help with the fanboy rage going on right now.

I plan on getting a card tomorrow, because this is just redunkolous.

@GiantGamer If they still have any in stock, id expect a lot of places to have huge deals on non Slim 360s, so you could just buy the Live cards now and the 360 later, or just buy the 360 now since there sales for the non slims RIGHT NOW

This price hike is just cooperate greed.

@Grey

Still, he was clearly planning on buying a 360, so I think it was safe to assume that he wanted a 360 game.

That said, if he was looking for a multiplayer one I guess that etc. etc.

Beware of the xbox.com deal. To take advantage of this, you have to sign up for auto-renew (which is a BAD IDEA). Once your year is up, your account will be auto-renewed at the current rate (aka $60).
It's a much better idea to wait for deals on the 1 year cards and buy then, regardless of whether your subscription is up yet or not. That's always been the best way to get cheap(er) Live.

1. announce xbox live price hike
2. sell out all current live cards
3. haha just kidding were not raising the price
4. ???
5. profit

@GiantGamer
I don't think I'm getting the connection of "A bunch of retailers are selling Live subs at a discount" for not buying the 360 (if you were actually planning on doing so). Granted, the raised price sucks, but the discounts don't. Maybe you just hit the wrong article...

No matter how you look at this whole situation retailers, online and off, will eventually run out of these discounted cards. Will they continue to print them out up until November, or will this deal last 'till September - October then stop?

This is all one huge hassle just to play games online. Again, there are other platforms out there that don't require stress such as this.

I Live in Canada, so If I buy one of these Cards, will it work still?

So basically they boosted it $10 more because of the new ESPN add-on right? Same with all the other sub cards. So why are some people on here saying were stupid for paying $60 a year? I can make $60 in a year in my change jar. What's the big deal?

Now would be the time to pick these babies up, cause november prices RISE!

YOU'RE TEARING ME APART, MICROSOFT.
Why do you make me buy your crap now, when I'm already dead from books?!

I knew I should have picked up on those deals back when it was like... $30.

@R Planteer

So true!

Ok, so I have been reading Joystiq for a long time and I always see the flame wars arise when it comes to Xbox Live, so here are my two cents.

Yes, xbox live does cost, but I feel completely justified in my purchase for a couple reasons.

1) Xbox live is far superior to PSN; say what you want but as far as content, functionality, and reliability, PSN cannot touch it.

2) Part of what I am paying for is added content and better functionality, again, say what you want but xbox live is again superior. I have never had an update to the xbox system or dashboard, either a, take away functionality (i.e. removal of secondary OS ability), or b, cause my system to crash or games to malfunction, (i.e. the list is too long to cover the updates Playstation has pushed out that they had to either remove or quickly add an additional fix to resolve the problem the update itself caused.

I receive usually two updates a year for the system, schedule for Fall and Spring, unless they are adding functionality it previously didn't have, which usually been bundled in said updates, but I believe there was one irregular system update for Netflix but don't quote me. Other than that the only other updates have been by the manufacturer of the game itself that has pushed an update.

3) The reliability of xbox live has been pretty stupendous, games play as they are supposed to and servers are up and running, with the exclusion of when Halo 3 came out, but again if any Playstation game sold over 2.5 million copies in the first 24 hours and the majority of those that purchased it came online day one, I am willing to bet that their systems would have crashed too.

4) Yes I hate spending money, especially on a subscription basis, but with the ability to now watch ESPN live on my xbox, I think I can manage the additional $0.85 a month for that. Honestly, have you seen what the cost is for cable/satellite these days, sheesh!

Sorry for the long rant but I, as a willing customer, am a little frustrated with constantly being bashed for a purchase I feel completely validated in making, especially when it comes from those that are so die hard that they cannot validate a quality product when they see one.

This begs the question, and I'll see the following responses to confirm, how many of you that bash xbox live, have both an xbox and a ps3? I am willing to bet that most only have a ps3, this is because I have over a dozen friends who have either both consoles or all three including the wii, and all of them play their xbox on live more than they do their ps3, and all excluding one are not lovers/haters of any console, just the experience on xbox live trumps that of psn, not to mention the shear volume of users on xbox live versus psn is no comparison.

Now that I am done with my rant, I will be expecting my Academy Award for longest Joystiq rant in the mail. If it will not fit in my mailbox please let me know :-p

Wouldn't that be down a Hamilton and not a Jackson?

If they're gonna raise the price I demand a way to only accept messages from friends. I swear if I get one more request from a whiny kid asking me to pay him 1600 microsoft points to join his 10th prestige lobby I'm going to throw myself on some sharp sticks. I DON'T CARE!!!

makes you wonder how long until the next generation of consoles comes around.

Newegg says limit 2 per order. Drat! Perhaps the demand was too high?
...
Or can I buy infinite numbers of them in many shipments...?