June 22nd 2010 3:51 pm PT

Xbox LIVE Family Pack coming this November

 

A lot of folks have been asking for something like this and today we announced details on the Xbox LIVE Gold Family Pack.  For $US 99.99, you’ll get four Xbox LIVE Gold Memberships for the price of two. The Xbox LIVE Gold Family Pack includes:

 

  • Up to four individual Xbox LIVE Gold memberships for the price of two – (US) $99.99.
  • Family Center – a single, easy to use, destination for Family Settings and account management, accessible on the Xbox dashboard and on Xbox.com.
  • The primary account member has the ability to purchase and dispense Microsoft Points to other Xbox LIVE Gold Family Pack members.
  • Activity monitoring reports viewable on Xbox.com to help encourage discussions about safer more balanced gaming and entertainment habits.
  • Simplified billing that applies all purchase charges to the primary account holder’s billing account and the ability to authorize purchases, helping to manage the family’s entertainment budget.
  • Exclusive family content and discounts.

     

    The Xbox LIVE Gold Family Pack will be available this November.

     
  • Xbox 360 By Larry Hryb, Xbox LIVE's Major Nelson

    • oAssassin Xo

      Shows you how greedy MS is. Everything I’ve seen lets you get a cheaper price for adding more things. Such as on Ebay you buy two items from the same seller and get a discount. Or another site I was at with accounts it was $10 an account OR $15 for two.

      Typical MS. Probably why next gen I am sticking with Sony. More so to because after hearing Kinetic probably will be around $150 I gave up on it. I want it but its not worth $150. >.>

    • SpecialAsh

      All I want to know if you be able to track and lock out that second user account from purchasing anything with that main user approval?

    • ZaZeeMan

      I think it’s ridiculous that MS expects us to pay for multiple Gold accounts on a single console in the first place! Gold membership should apply to the console, not individual accounts. This is just another cash cow in Microsoft’s stable.

    • NBA Kirkland

      My gold account is paid through sometime in 2012. If I get a family pack for myself and 2 family members will my prepaid time be extended or just wasted?

    • MadDog Murdoch

      My son and I have separate XBox Live accounts on two different consoles in our house… I, too, would like to find out if they can be merged. Although I tend to buy my renewals from Amazon when they sell them for $30 every now and then,it MIGHT be worth something to hook up my wife and daughter as well, but they play so seldom, I don’t know if it is worth the $40 increase over what we normally pay for the two of us per year…

      Good idea, but still too pricey perhaps.

      Also, when does that ESPN deal kick in? Dish Network and Disney are fighting and they just turned off the HD feeds of ABC Family, ESPNNews, and the Disney HD channels (ESPN and ESPN2 still on in HD….. I’m wondering if the ESPN and ESPN 2 content is next and want to have a backup ..I’m assuming the coming XBox ESPN content will be HD Quality)

    • MadDog Murdoch

      Also, more importantly….. Will content purchased on one console by one family member, be automatically authorized for the other family member on a second console… this might sweeten the deal enough to justify paying the extra amount vs. the discount we can usually get (buy.com had it for $34 yesterday… don’t know if it is still there)

    • JoJoStarFire

      This is something that I will look foward too, especially the dispensing of Micrsoft Points. I don’t want to purchase any games with my daughter’s account, because of license issues ( I have to transfer South Park). The family pack will be good, for my daughter, stepson, my husband, and especially myself ( I game the most). Plus my account finishes on November so this will come in handy.

    • TootieTazzy

      All of my questions have been asked already. I’m really eager to see if this will be available to everyone, instead of just the US.

    • BustedChain

      So if I had the primary account, I could have it setup so that none of the accounts under mine would be able to buy DLC unless I authorized it, right?

      Also, I’d be able to “gift” points to the subaccounts? Sounds perfect for me and my friends. It would save them money and they couldn’t rack up a huge DLC bill on my tab…they could pay for what ever points they wanted to use and I could send them points as they pay.

      Sounds like an awesome way for a family or a small close group of people to share the expense of Live. Very cool, Microsoft… now don’t jack it up ;?)

    • JoJoStarFire

      I forgot to mention, the family setting for indiviual members is something that I have been waiting for, never blocked my system because of myself. November is a long wait, but if we waited for the Facebook, Twitter, Zune thing, which I still say that you should add people on facebook like you do a friend request. Oh well, I hope it’s something that they consider before November.

    • RuairiAU

      For this to work, we need shared DLC across family members. I want my family members to have access to all purchases I have made. Even purchases before the upgrade. If it could merge all purchases by all accounts into one, that would be great. Also, we need a better way of sharing DLC licenses to all consoles owned by the main account holder. I want to be able to play games like battlefield 1943 with my son, without having to purchase it twice or worry about which account purchased it or which console it was downloaded on first.

    • Z4M0

      Awesome ! not my case (yet) but I know for sure lots of people were asking for something like that :)

    • NBA Kirkland

      @RuairiAU Great point RuairiAU.
      An example:
      I try to let my daughter play Fable 2 on our 2nd console. I’ve downloaded all the DLC to that console. It works fine for me. But of course it doesn’t work for her because I purchased the DLC on our first console with my account. Argh!

    • ElektroDragon

      What if you are family without kids?! For a husband and wife couple, this is no discount at all. Why not call this the LIVE Child pack? It is still much cheaper for a family of 2 to buy 12 month LIVE cards on eBay.

    • EveofLight

      This is good for me and my daughter, I can pass MSP that I haven’t used to her account so she can get some avatar items. I am planning on connecting accounts with my twin and her daughter so this will be good for me as well. I was wondering if there could be 1 primary and a secondary account that could manage billing as well as my sis like to share our credit cards.

      Can this only be done on one Xbox or do you just need to connect the profiles?

    • BeeDizz

      Great idea. As long as it works on multiple consoles. Having to pay for so many Gold memberships in 1 house is why my kids have to share a 360, and an account. I spend alot on our hobby of gaming. But i find it hard to justify spending $200 a year just to allow my kids to play online. If this spans multiple 360s, the number of 360s and 360 games in my house would double instantly.

    • Dortamur

      This is a great idea! Most of my questions have been asked by others already, but I have another:

      How easy will it be to change which Gamertags are included in the family membership?

      Say, for example, my eldest son gets kicked out of home (as all (most?) kids eventually do), can we easily remove him from the Family, and get him to buy his own separate Gold, and still have him keep stuff he’s purchased while under the Family?

      Similarly, if a new addition to the family comes along, is it easy to create them a Gamertag and add them to an existing Family membership?

    • TANK 2old2play

      Soo Kinect is now listed on the Microsoft store for 150 bucks? I thought the whole point of taking the processing unit out of it and handing that off to the 360 was to bring the costs down? 150 bucks, seriously? Forget about it. I won’t pay any more than 100 bucks, sorry but until the price comes down to a reasonable cost, i’m not going to spend almost an entire consoles worth of money on an unproven accessory, not gonna happen.

    • chiruno99

      @sho220
      You can get them in a bundlepack with the Move Wand, Subcontroller, an Eyetoy and a Demo for much less than Kinect, so unless you already have an eyetoy and like exposing yourself to children online, Move is cheaper as a set.
      -
      Seriously though there should be less kids online, not more.

    • EveofLight

      I too am going to wait till the Kinect goes to a lower price (I have thought thoroughly about this), if it fails then I won’t feel regret for spending $150. I know there will be people there on day 1 but from the looks of it not a lot of people are JUMPING IN to this “new innovative technology”.

    • diablo1967

      Is this definately coming to the UK too?

      And as for those people already slamming Kinect before it’s even released, are you for real?

      My small children will love this. If the software support is there and indie developers can get their hands on it, it will be huge. It’ll certainly stop those low-resolution Wii-tards from bleating on about their toy and the 370th re-incarnation of Mario.

    • TH3Hammer

      “And as for those people already slamming Kinect before it’s even released, are you for real?”

      Yep. They haven’t shown anything to justify the price tag, IMO. I have already decided to pick up Playstation Move though.

    • Alex Atkin UK

      A valiant effort but still a failure to me. I do not want a family account, I want a CONSOLE account. Basically, Gold assigned to my consoles serial number so ANYONE signed in on that console logs in as a Gold account.

      I have several friends who do not have Gold, quite frankly they do not even have an Internet connection at home except perhaps on their mobile phones, so it makes no sense to buy a Gold account. However they would like to be able to use Gold features when logged in on my console connected to broadband.

      Even a 1 month account is expensive if they only use it at best 1 week out of that month. I would happily lose the ability to use my Gold account anywhere if it meant I could assign it to my console instead allowing my friends to use Gold features when logged in on it.

    • RidinSlow

      Does Microsoft really think that the new casual crowd is going to be interested in paying so much to get online? I don’t think so. “Casual” also comes along with “budget” as well as “family.” $50 for a single membership or $100 for a family of 4 membership is still going to be unattractive to the “casual” crowd that Kinect is trying to draw in.

      I believe it is time for a tiered XBL subscription service.

      Tier 1: [Bronze Level] – FREE – Online Multiplayer, Access to the Marketplace, Friends List Capacity of 25 friends

      Tier 2: [Silver Level] – $15/year – Bronze Level Benefits, Friends List Capacity of 50 friends, Access to Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm, and whatever free service MS wants to charge for.

      Tier 3: [Gold Level] – $25/year – Silver Level Benefits, Friends List capacity of 100 friends, Access to 1vs100, Free avatar and in-game items once a month

      Tier 4: [Platinum Level] – $50/year – Gold Level Benefits, Friends List capacity of 500 friends, Access to ESPN channel, Free XBLA game every month for as long as your subscription is valid, 50 Free MS points every month, Access to Clans and Clan Parties, Dedicated Hosting Servers, Live Video Chat during gameplay

      – Of course the benefits and levels can be played around with, but there’s an example. MS doesn’t offer much choice when it comes to accessing their network and they restrict those who do not pay from getting into online multiplayer, which is where they earn most of their sales on DLC. Seems to me that MS is getting to the point where they need a Tiered structure. Of course, I’ve been rooting for this for quite a while now…

    • chiruno99

      Your tiered Memberships idea sounds the biggest bollocks I’ve ever read. The only ay to fix it is to completly destroy it. MS would NEVER give anything for free, ever, except free dlc.

    • RidinSlow

      @chiruno99 Why do people get stuck so hard on the FREE STUFF concept? Ignore those items that bother you and just think about the idea of offering different levels of service.

      BTW – The Playstation Plus service provides free stuff. Sony has figured something out. This isn’t were I got the idea, but it shows that it’s not a crazy concept.

    • chiruno99

      They tired to do tier level membershiups before a long time ago here there was something before Silver, but they scrapped it and went to Silver and Gold. It’s easier with the wto levels anyway: cheapskates who should fork out for oodies and Customers that get the stuff.

      And don’t bring PSN plus into this either.

    • EveofLight

      And as for those people already slamming Kinect before it’s even released, are you for real?

      @diablo1967 -
      Hey, I’m one of those who would love Kinect in my living room, but there is quite a few things I bought from Microsoft that have become obsolete/worthless/useless and I don’t want the same thing happening again on a $150 piece of merchandise. Its a 3D motion cam with a mic and can control my dashboard whenever I feel lazy but I don’t want it collecting dust if in the future it is ever forgotten.

      I like to think ahead and sometimes I can be very impulsive and that ends up biting me in the ass which I don’t want to happen here. So I will listen to what my gut is telling me and its telling me to wait a while to see the outcome of Kinect in the homes then I will JUMP IN along with the others.

    • RidinSlow

      @chiruno99 it’s always been Silver and Gold since the launch of Xbox 360. Maybe there were discussions, but when Xbox 360 hit the market this is the way it was.

      You don’t have any reasonable argument against my idea except that you think that Silver members are “cheapskates who should fork out for oodies”. Choose a four-letter word and shove it somewhere dark and cold. I would “fork out” if Microsoft gave me a choice that was more suitable for my needs. If I could pay for online multiplayer only, I would. But Microsoft doesn’t offer me that choice. So, you think I’m a cheapskate because I refuse to pay for services I’ll never use. I say I’m an intelligent shopper.

      I can, will, and did bring PSN into this because it’s in direct competition with Xbox Live.

    • chiruno99

      @RidinSlow
      I’ll but Fish in your freezer. Sorry but I read through that and I can’t help but laugh.
      “Choose a four-letter word and shove it somewhere dark and cold.”
      Put it this way, you don’t pay for gold, you don’t get discounts. Miscosoft don’t see you as a loyal customer. That’s the facts.
      If you love PSN so much then go on it, I have both and they’re both full of kids and dicks alike.

    • Kroesis

      Rofl

      So.. RidinSlow just put your previous ‘fact’ to bed, so you ignore that and focus on the more humorous side of his post. Then you post that “you don’t pay for gold, you don’t get discounts” which, while generally true, you just happen to post the day after the Sonic 19th anniversary offers were presented to both Gold AND Silver members.

      Then you go on to say “If you love PSN so much then go on it” which is awfully similar to immature playground retorts. Then when I thought it couldn’t get better you pull out the punchline “I have both and they’re both full of kids and dicks alike”

      Indeed… common denominator comes to mind…

      GG

    • Quo

      Can DLC (most prevalently FPS Maps, but also add-on missions, etc) be made available to the whole family instead of just one account?

      I only have to buy one copy of a game for my family to share… but when it comes to DLC, I have to pay for it several times over if each person wants to play it on their own account…

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