Cheap Xbox Live is the Best Deal in Gaming

Microsoft Store, the retail arm of the company behind Windows, Windows Phone and Office, is making it even cheaper to sign up for its Xbox Live gaming service. The retailer is offering cheap Xbox Live and taking the paper cards that the codes usually come on out of the question

It’s unclear when the Microsoft Store began offering the cheap Xbox Live, but it’s still going strong. $39.99 gets users a complete year of Xbox Live Gold complete with all the benefits that entails. Instead of mailing the codes out on a card, which is what many retailers do, the Microsoft Store is emailing the codes to registered users once the charge has gone through. Users who really do want the code on a card can choose that option.

Normally, a year of Xbox Live costs users $60 a year or $10 a month. To be clear, Xbox One and Xbox 360 users can take advantage of this deal.

The Xbox One nor Xbox 360 require users to have an Xbox Live subscription to play games in single player, but a subscription is required to play online with other players. On the Xbox 360, Xbox Live Gold is more of a subscription service for discounts and free titles. Xbox 360 users get two free games to keep a month plus access to the Xbox Live Deals with Gold promotions that refresh every week.

Just yesterday Microsoft revealed that it plans to give away free copies of Tomb Raider & Bioshock Infinite to Xbox Live Gold users during the month of March. Xbox 360 users will get to download those titles and keep them for as long as they would like. For Xbox 360 users, an Xbox Live Gold subscription translates to roughly 24 free games and mountains of heavily discounted titles.

In March Xbox One owners will get Rayman: Legends for free with their Xbox Live Gold subscription. On the Xbox One, Xbox Live Gold is more like a video game rental service, the free games given to users stop working when they stop paying for Xbox Live Gold.

In years past, having Xbox Live Gold was the only way to stream from apps like Netflix. Microsoft killed off that requirement for the Xbox One and Xbox 360 last year in huge shakeup.

Xbox Live Gold has plenty of extras for Xbox One owners besides free games. Xbox Fitness is an app that uses the Kinect 2 sensor to help users stay active and healthy. Free access is included with Xbox Live Gold on the Xbox One. It’s a perfect replacement for a personal trainer or a gym membership. Xbox Live Gold on the Xbox One is the only way gamers can chat with other players inside and outside of games to. Game DVR is another feature of Xbox One, that’s only enabled when there’s an Xbox Live Gold subscription.

The feature allows users to take screenshots and capture videos from their favorite titles. Users can hoard their clips on Microsoft’s servers, or make them available for their friends and family to see. These clips are also available on Microsoft’s Xbox.com website. Every user on a console gets the advantages of Xbox Live Gold on the Xbox One, something that’s not true on the Xbox 360.

Whether this is a limited time promotion or Microsoft testing how gamers would respond to cheap Xbox Live remains unclear. The Microsoft Store doesn’t say if this is a limited time offer or the price we can expect going forward. As such, those who are interested should definitely move to purchase their membership as quickly as possible.