If you’re a listener of our Entertainment 2.0 podcast then you know that I’m not all that happy with Xbox Live right now. While I constantly use our three Xbox 360s as Media Center extenders, I haven’t been gaming a lot lately and I’m starting to have a hard time justifying the subscription service. Microsoft has added some great additional content lately and this has kept me on it.
The problem is that all of the good stuff is tied to your Xbox Live Gold account. Unless you want to pay $50 a year for each TV (with a 360 attached) in your home, you were restricted to using services like Netflix, Zune Marketplace, Last.fm, etc. on one TV in your home. This has been our situation for awhile now and quite frankly it’s ridiculous. I can send recorded TV, saved movies and music all over the house, but with other services I pay for I can’t.
It looks like MS has decided to fix the problem. It’ll cost you a bit more a year, but depending on the size of your family, it may be perfect.
A post over at Xbox 360 Press revealed the details for a November launch of the Xbox Live Family Pack. The family pack will allow you to tie four Xbox Live Gold memberships together for the yearly price of $99.99. For some quick math, figure that’s four for the price of two if you have a four member family like I do.
Some of the details:
- 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.
While I’m not enthused by the price doubling for our family, it will mean I can use Netflix and other services on all the TVs in our home. As well, with two boys, at some point they’d want a Gold subscription anyway so in the long run, I’ll save.
Head to the Xbox 360 Press blog post for all the info.