Good looking out.

They occasionally have the same price for the 12+1 subscriptions cards. I bought that mess, but forgot to use it, so I was charged a full $50 for a year's membership.

AWW BUT I'M BROKE BECAUSE OF WOOT.COM! CURSE YOU!!!!

I'll still compain. I really am not a fan at all of pay to play services.

Friggin Nintendo jumping on the bandwagon.

nice! my subscription expires in march anyway so i was waiting for a good deal to come around! Thanks Kotaku!

I actually bought one this morning even before the post. This is indeed a great deal!!

@rbelmont000: I'm hoping Nintendo's thing is just for furutre MMO-like-things or something. If not, I'll be very disappointed.

awesome, now it'd be a waste since my membership isn't up in time to use a new card.

nice.

what i do is go to kmart/target/walmart/w.e store and look for the subscription cards that were used for the old xbox because they work for the 360 and they usually have them on clearance for $9.99 or less :) got 3 1 year cards for less than $30

!!!! USE GOOGLE CHECK OUT !!!!

If you use google check out it is only $28.75, even better deal.

I just bought it for $28.75!!!You can get an Extra $10 if you sign up for a Google Account! ITS AWESOME!

Im stoked, beacuse my account expires 3/28/08-
so i needed to get a new one-

So i r paying...$2.39 a month! Oh...plus the free one month...yeah..its sweet

@EaGle1337:

I think it would just add the time on, wouldn't it? So you could have like a year plus whatever you have now?

Great deal. I did this a couple of months ago. It just adds the months onto the end of your subscription. It doesn't matter if you still have a lot of time left.

can you buy these and then not use them until a year later? I think mine runs out in December.

Still too much for player hosted content

@diablodevil2: if so sweet. cause then i'm fine till next year.

I don't even own a 360 and the complaints about 30-50 bucks a YEAR for online are pretty annoying.

So I can pay 3 dollars a month?

I don't want the service for a year. I just want it for a couple months so $3 dollars is month for sure?

Okay, you can see where I am going with that....

Remember, if you use Google checkout, first time user, you get extra $10 dollars off!!!

I bought it for 28 beans when I first saw it about a month ago.

@broomperson:
You can just add the time to your current subscription...so if you add it your account wont expire until December...2009! Oh snap!

Oh I'll complain all I want. They could charge me a fucking 1$ for a year of live and kiss my ass. I don't pay for online play.

Count me among those who will still complain.

It really isn't a terrible amount of money, but considering that I already pay my ISP and I still have to pay to download games and DLC, I really don't think a subscription just to have basic features that are available on PC for free, is appropriate.

Realistically priced HDD, Mandatory HDD, and Free XBL.

Seriously Microsoft, do this shit.

Alright, now all that's left to do is make Live actually worth $3 per month!

Bought mine from a guy who sells them on ebay for $40

Received my email mode almost immediately.

[cgi.ebay.com]

Highly recommended. Perfect feedback as well.

Got one. Thanks for the tip.

Careful, though. The default is standard shipping for $6+. Gotta choose the super cheapo shipping.

Free is still better than $38.75.

But this is a pretty nice deal. Good eye.

i just bought a 1600 pts card so I could buy "N+" and I couldn't redeem it. There was much frustration and cursing aimed at Microsoft for their stupid service that i'm paying for but never works... After typing in the numbers about 8 times and getting ERROR messages I called Microsoft customer support. While on hold I realized the teen sales clerk never rang my card up... So I had to hop in the car and get back to the store before they closed. I don't know the point of sharing, but it was amusing.

ARPRINCE at 12:13 PM:
I actually bought one this morning even before.

Same here. I saw the Buy.com email early this morning and jumed right on it. I was going to get one this week anyways.

Good Deal!

Dont buy from Ebay! Worst mistake ever. they just boost em from the stores and dont activate em so your card or code is not going to work.

Buying Live subscriptions are cheaper (per month) the longer the amount is (12+1 Mo. vs 3 mo.). Too bad the
MS points don't work the same way. Buy 1600pts or 4000pts, you pay the same amount per point.

still $38.75 too expensive :)

@ExistentialEgg: So what numbers were you typing in? From an old card or something?

Beware of Buy.com's "free shipping." Bought memory from them a while back and the free shipping used is "shipping innovations"...where the item is sent so far along by UPS then transferred to USPS to be delivered the rest of the way. If it sounds like a complicated journey for a piece of mail weighing less than a few ounces...it is. After getting to a hub within 40 minutes of my house, it was transferred to another hub, then another, finally getting lost two states away. I finally got a refund from Buy.com but had to wait FOREVER to be sure that it didn't get delivered EVENTUALLY!

I just got one for $30.69 total after MS sales tax. Not a bad deal at all. Thanks Kotaku!!

@duckmouth: no, i scratched off the card that I thought I "bought" and was trying to redeem it; basically the same as if I stole it from the rack in the store, it was never activated at the register. I was all pissed at M$, but it was the sales clerk's error. She rang up an item twice instead of the card.

@Dakobah: @ExistentialEgg:

If they are cards in the regular retail blister packs, they do not have to be activated at checkout. The codes are "live" in the package.

@Fyren:

how do you use google checkout, im at the checkout now.

@rbelmont000: Or you can take a knee jerk reaction to money and throw a fit...

In case any readers don't already know this...for those of you who already have Live, this is still a good deal; when you redeem the prepaid card, it 'stacks' time onto your Live membership. So you're still saving yourself money in the long run if you intend to persist with Live through the next year.

I'm on it!

Well at least Live works... with games... while you play them even!

No shipping to Canada :(

I'm not sure why people think it should be free in the first place? To me its like saying, I just bought a TV but I think all the cable channels should be free. Thats just me.

woo - thanx.

I got it for $28.75 since I opened up another Google Checkout account.

@broomperson:
Just buy it and input the code. You don't need to wait until your subscription runs out because it adds on the extra months on top of whatever you have left.

Buy.com sometimes sells your information to a scam called TLG*GREATFN which charges your credit card for no services, be careful. Google it and you'll see.

*SCORED*

i figured out how to use Google Checkout.

doh

Great deal, Don't forget to use Google Checkout to get an extra $10 off!

@Father ColdCuts (please donate to my charity event. Link on...: You need a shorter name, senor.

Paying for P2P online matches should be illegal in every Country. No reason for MS to charge for Live other than their desire to milk their customers.

That still too much. Any amount is too much. If Sony and Nintendo can offer it for free, Microsoft can and should too.

Maybe its because I'm primarily a PC gamer and have been enjoying free online gaming for years. Idk.

@Nayl:
same here. I would much rather get together with a few people and rent a Dedicated server for 3 bucks a month in a collective group for a better connection.

I LOVE YOUR KOTAKU! YOU JUST RE-EARNED HOME PAGE STATUS!
I checked out with "Google CheckOut" and saved ANOTHER $10!!! Thats right 28.75 for LIVE.

Just fantastic.

Sony ought to offer a paid service - one which isn't hugely laggy, and which has an intuitive and responsive marketplace interface. They might have to set up a completely separate network for such a service, but then at least people would no longer be able to justifiably point out how inferior Sony's online experience is to Xbox Live.

Then all they would need to do is retroactively institute achievments (or "entitlements", or "whatever floats your boat") to every preexisting game, and the field would be practically even.

@Wolfers: haha wait sorry nintendo is planning on charging for online use? wtf are they offering? as it stands now I feel like that system owes me money

Sony and Nintendo are hardly offering the giant amount of content that MS is offering. Nintendo is realizing that if they're going to feed us any content, they need to make some sort of revenue doing so. $2-ish a month is worth it to me.

Deals: Score An PSN Online Membership For $00.00

HOLY SHIT GUYS

@Thassodar: You didnt buy those stupid speakers, did you?

I cannot believe people are happy about paying for a peer to peer service.. What are you paying for? The luxury of using your own bandwidth? The privilege of downloading advertisement? Oh wait! Matchmaking! Just fucking mind boggling..

@Thassodar: woot got me too, but even if it didn't, $38.75 still isn't worth it. Till I get the option to block out the voices of high-pitched annoying pre-pubescent foul mouthed little kiddies or they are seperated from adults whom actually have an interest in playing a session without kids screaming "HACKER!", then I'll hold onto the Silver account I'm using with 48 hour gold trials out the ass since I'm only mooching my friends 360.

@Baikenator: Yeah, I was about to mention that too...

@NAT_TA: cause EVERY ps3 game online uses dedicated servers....and comes lag free.

Metal gear Online for mgs3 was using dedicated servers....it still blew ass.

@dozerking: milking customers...the sheer amount of dlc for idolmaster in japan, and how much they charge for it is reason enough to milk customers for all they are worth.

@NAT_TA: Standards.

There is a unified friend's list for all use