Silver and Gold
 Photo courtesy Xbox |
Membership to Silver is free. With it, players can:
- Create a profile and a Gamertag
- Create a friends list
- Send and receive text and voice messages
- Access the Marketplace and Arcade
- Access Massively Multiplayer Online Games (usually for an additional fee)
Gold membership costs $50 per year and includes all of the features of Silver as well as the ability to:
- Access exclusive Marketplace content
- Use the TrueSkill matchmaking service to find players of a similar skill level
- Use a more extensive feedback and friends list system
 Photo courtesy HowStuffWorks Shopper Depending on which version of Xbox you purchase, you may need additional hardware or software. |
An Xbox 360 costs $399 (the $299 core version doesn't include the Ethernet cable or the hard drive, both of which are required for Xbox Live). This includes a 20 GB hard drive, Ethernet cable, voice chat headset and a free month of Gold membership. There are also Xbox Live starter packages available that include the headset, a Gold membership, Marketplace points and access to a game at the Arcade. Once the free membership period has passed, it costs $50 per year for a Gold membership.
Players purchase downloadable content with points, which they can pre-purchase with a card that is similar to a phone card. This allows people without credit cards to buy downloadable content. A 1600 point-card costs about $20. Games in the Arcade cost 400 to 800 points, while gamer pictures cost 20 points and a theme for the Xbox Live Dashboard (the system's graphical user interface) costs 150 points. Demos and trailers for upcoming games are also available, usually for free.
Next, we'll learn about some of Xbox Live's technical details.
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Microsoft hopes that Xbox Live is a killer app, because their aspirations go far beyond attracting gamers. The company intends to expand Xbox Live's features to make it a media hub for the entire household, making it so useful that people will buy an Xbox just so they can have access to it. Some of its current non-gaming multimedia features include:
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