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Xbox Live Gold is Microsoft’s online gaming subscription service for the Xbox 360, Xbox One and Xbox One Series X consoles that is required to play online multiplayer games. Whether you’re playing a co-operative game with a single friend over the Internet or via a competitive multiplayer game with a bunch of people you don’t know online, you’ll need a Xbox Live Gold subscription to do it. Learn more about the Xbox Live Gold benefits and how to pay less for the membership in the future.
The Benefits of Having Xbox Live Gold
If you have an Xbox One or Xbox 360, Microsoft’s 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.
Overall, the big benefit to Xbox Live Gold is the multiplayer access. Xbox Live Gold is absolutely worth it if you want to play multiplayer games on your Xbox One/Xbox Series X. Every game console has started charging for this feature, so the only way to play online games for free is to switch to a PC.
Xbox Games with Gold
Every month, Microsoft offers several free games through its “Games With Gold” service. While these games are available—for the entire month or just for two weeks, depending on the game—you can choose to “redeem” them via the website or on your Xbox console. You can then download—and keep—the game for free.
If you don’t redeem the game during its free time period, you don’t get it for free. This means you won’t get any of the previous “Games With Gold” for free when you subscribe. It also means that, if you don’t stay on top of the free game offers, you’ll miss some games and won’t get them for free. However, people who have been members for a long time may have libraries full of hundreds of games they got for free, if they’re diligent.
On an Xbox One, once you’ve redeemed a free game, you can download and play it whenever you like, forever—as long as you have an active subscription. If your subscription lapses, you won’t be able to play the game anymore. If you restart your subscription, you’ll regain access to all the games you previously redeemed.
How to Pay Less for Xbox Live Gold
One way to get Xbox Live Gold at a discount is to wait for a bundle that includes the Live Gold service with a product you want to purchase. You might not get a full year of Xbox Live Gold — usually, these bundles come with three-month subscription bonuses — but many retailers bundle Xbox Live Gold subscription cards with games and accessories at a discount.
If you’re not fond of buying bundles to get a few free months subscription, you can always take advantage of coupon codes at online retailers. Xbox Live Gold subscriptions almost always count as accessories, and any location that has a sale or coupon code for gaming accessories may stock Xbox Live Gold cards. One year of Xbox Live Gold might be listed for $60 at some retailers, but when you use coupon codes, that price can be reduced substantially.
By far the easiest and best way to get Xbox Live Gold at a discount is to keep an eye out for deals on subscription and gift cards at a good price, purchase those, and then use them to subscribe or renew. You can use multiple gift and subscription cards for Xbox Live Gold, and each one can extend a current subscription. Buy a couple of inexpensive cards when you find them at a discount, and you’ll be set for quite a while.
Purchasing Your Xbox Live Gold Subscription From Electronic First
If you want to purchase a Xbox Live Gold Membership (1, 3, 6 or 12 months) at a big discount, then head over to Electronic First now! We have some great deals going on these memberships now that will make you ditch auto-renewing via the Microsoft website every year and save some extra cash that you can use to buy more awesome multiplayer games!
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