Thinking of joining the millions of gamers on Xbox Live? I promise you that you will not be disappointed and although you do have to pay a monthly subscription, that payment is so worth it because Xbox Live is a very smooth and well maintained experience!


About Xbox Live

You don't have to pay Microsoft anything to actually sign-in to the network, but if you want to play your games online and take advantage of the additional services on offer then you must subscribe. It is not very expensive to use Xbox Live and if you are prepared to pay for several months or even a year in advance, then you will pay much less per month overall.

There are two types of accounts on Xbox Live, first is the Silver membership which allows you to make friends, private chat with other users, create your own avatar and download content such as game add-ons and arcade games. There is also a Gold membership which allows you to play your games online with other members, stream video and movies, enter chat parties with multiple people at once, use services such as facebook and also gain access to exclusive demo's and special discounts.

You can either pay Microsoft via credit card or purchase subscription cards from local game shops or web sites online. In my experience, most people prefer the subscription cards because they are less hassle and can be used on any gamertag or console. Subscribing via credit card will often give you special discounts like 3 months half price, so if possible it is recommended to use a credit card for your subscription but the choice is yours!

Each new console has several free, one month trials built in and you can test Xbox Live for free before you decide whether to subscribe for an extended period. There are also 48 hour Gold trial cards with some games that give a small taste of the experience.


Setup your Gold account

Creating an account on Xbox Live is very simple, all you need is a storage device such as a memory unit (MU) or an official Xbox hard drive (newer consoles have memory built in) and a working email address. Connect your Xbox to the internet using an Ethernet cable or Microsoft Wireless Adapter and then sign-in to your profile, now press the Xbox button on your controller and go to "Join Xbox Live" to begin the sign-up process.

You will be asked to enter some basic information about yourself, such as name and email address. After entering your details, Microsoft will send you an activation email. You need to click the link inside this email to confirm your Live ID, once this is done, you will be ready to sign-in for the first time.

Once you are signed in, you will be able to fully customize your avatar and add friends to your contact list. If you don't have any friends to add yet, then you can go straight online with one of your games to find some team-mates. Most games are online enabled and give you an online history, which is viewable from the Xbox button's pop-up menu.

If you have too many friends online and you only want to login to check something, then you may hide your online status by pressing the Xbox button and scrolling right to find Preferences. There is an option for online status which can be changed on both Xbox Live and Windows Live Messenger, select the Offline mode to hide your online status.