Xbox 360 Live 12 Month Gold Card plus 1 Month Bonus

Comment: Back in 2006, I was a member of Xbox Live for the original Xbox. I used the service for two years playing online games like: Forza Motorsport, OutRun 2006, Street Fighter Anniversary Collection, Phantasy Star Online, NFL 2k5, Dead or Alive Ultimate and many other online titles. Meeting people worldwide, sending game invitations and talking trash made Xbox Live a wonderful network gathering. Microsoft truly delivers an awesome online gaming experience.

But in 2008, I decided to cancel my account due to the fact that people were no longer playing the original Xbox and have moved to Xbox 360. I called Microsoft and they teminated my account...so I thought. The other day I was surfing the internet and discovered that Microsoft posted my gamertag and account profile on their site. With no way to delete my profile on their site, I called Microsoft to remove it. They couldn't do anything about it and quickly ignored my concerns. I felt USED knowing that my gamertag and profile will remain on Microsoft's website even though I'm no longer a customer. Microsoft invites you in but doesn't let you out.

Xbox Live for Xbox 360 offers additional features like buying movies, television shows and classic games from their network. But are they really yours after you purchase them? Absolutely not! Microsoft's definition of the word "purchase" actually means "rent". The digital content you purchase on Xbox 360 is yours as long as you are a Xbox Live customer "or" as long as Microsoft says so. Here's a true story. Xbox Live Arcade was introduced on the original Xbox in 2005. They had a little marketplace where you can buy games. I purchased a game called Gauntlet. They charged my credit card and game was downloaded digitally to my Xbox Hard Drive. The day I cancelled my Xbox Live account, my Gauntlet game purchase disappeared from my hard drive. Now think about the millions of people who purchased digital games from the marketplace on the original Xbox. And what Microsoft did to all those people on April 14, 2010. That was the day Microsoft shut down the original Xbox Live servers on the original Xbox. Get the picture? All those people with digital content on their systems no longer have access because the content was tied to Xbox Live.

Fast forward a few years from now when Mircosoft is ready to release a new video game system. What's going to happen to all the digital content you purchased on your Xbox 360? I'll tell you...Microsoft will unplug you just like they unplugged the original Xbox. They will force you to buy their new system and new downloadable content! Same goes for Nintendo and Sony. It's a sad truth. So before buying this Xbox Live subscription card ask yourself these questions...Is it worth being a Xbox Live customer for life without an option to permanently delete your account? Is it worth buying Microsoft Points only to rent digital content that can not be transferred? Is it worth buying for online gameplay when everyone only plays 3 games: Halo, Gears of War and Madden? Whatever you do think about what your getting into!!! My advice is to stay away from Xbox Live, Playstation Network and Wii Virtual Console. The best thing to do is go to your local store, buy the game and invite some friends over. Believe me people...I've been there. I wish I had a time machine to go back to 2006 so I can stop myself from joining Xbox Live.

Comment: This is a necessary item if you wish to play any game online against or with other people on xbox live. When I bought this it was on sale, so it saved me about 10 bucks so thanks amazon. You can also now access facebook and twitter via the xbox dashboard.

Comment: my live ran out and all I could find was a 12month. Check online and found this one with and extra month for $5 cheaper. Suggestion: Make sure to order online before your account runs out. Also grab these 13 month cards as I think they are discontinued.

Comment: Xbox Live is Microsoft's online service for the Xbox 360. While Sony provides this online servuce for free at the moment for the Playstation 3, Micorsoft has put a MSRP of $49.99 on their online service. Though recently, retialers have been discounting these cards $10-20 off so keep your eyes open for a good deal.

Xbox Live's main function is that it allows you to play the games you bought online, if the feature is included. For instance if you bought Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the single player campaign is only 6-8 hours long. Pretty short for a game that is costing you $60. With Xbox Live, you can now play that game against people all over the world for 100s of hours if you like. In essence, Live can extend the life of a game pretty dramatically.

Another cool feature is the access to Microsoft's Marketplace. Here you can buy Xbox Live Arcade games like Bejeweled, download demos of games released or soon to be released for free, rent/buy movies, buy DLC content for you games, etc.

Also Live has a ton of community features like Facebook, Last.fm, Twitter, friend list and voice chat. Voice chat is great because while playing a game, you can talk to your friend without having to use your cellphone minutes. You do not even need to be playing the same game to chat which is great. Just pick your friend out from friend list and start chatting.

While Live is great, there is a major problem that parents should know. Every game played online has voice chat enabled. This can lead to some players being complete jerks where they will use foul, vile language that is not suitable for kids. I guess some players find it funny to talk like sailors, but it can get very offensive. Now I play mostly Mature rated games so I assume this is not a problem for kid games, but it is an issue that parents need to know. Always be sure to check the ESRB ratings found in front of games before buying.

Live is a great feature that is definitely worth paying for so keep your eyes open for when retailers like Amazon have these cards on sale. See you online.

Comment: This is a great value and one of the cheapest i can find. will probably be buying from Amazon again if it stays this cheap. item arrived quickly and had no issues.