10 years of Xbox Live

I just got an email informing me that I've been with XBL for 10 years along with some sort of avatar award. The only thing this mail did was make me realize I'm old as shit. Anyone else here been on XBL for that long?

I think I have seven or eight. What award do you get?

Oh you got gypped, it seems that Microsoft gave out some 10th Anniversary 360s to some long-time subscribers.

That's kind of cool, acknowledging something that really is kind of meaningless to anyone but them. It's a little thing they didn't really need to do, but cool all the same.

I wonder, does that message populate based on what games you've played or is it just a set list? Either way, it's a good game of 'Do you get all those references?'

Ooh, I've got a nice avatar helmet too! Seems a bit odd since I feel I haven't been subscribed to Gold in ages, but I guess that doesn't matter!

How much money does that add up to? Fucking Hell man!

Man, I wish I would'nt have ditched my Xbox Live account when I moved a while back. I had the retail box for the original X-box on release and played Unreal Tournament day and night. I could be sitting on the 10 year pedestal, but I'll be stuck here on my lonely, un-appreciated 7 year sub.

Just got the same thing. 10 years! And to think 7 of those are on the 360.

Had about 9 years straight before I stopped subscribing for one fucking month

They're giving Wreckateer away for free as well.

I've been playing on LIVE for about 5 years. Great experience but now I've moved on to PSN.

60 dollars a year for 10 years is 600 dollars. Say they have had a constant million subscribers since day 1 then that's 600 million dollars. They've had more though. A lot more. Easily 3 billion dollars has been made off of XBL at the very least and it has had nowhere near that much put into it. Hell I'd say maybe at most they've put 100 million into the R&D as well as the infrastructure of that service. And yes I'm pulling numbers out of thin air. Call me Miss Cleo.

Gotta hand it to them. You put the one thing that people want behind a paywall and then over time force every game to have an aspect behind that paywall and you make a fuckload of money by forcing people's hands.

6 years for me, bought my 360 on release but i still had shitty ISDN and couldnt connect my 360 for a full year until i got BT broadband

I forgot to cancel my original Xbox Live account when I created a new one after getting the 360. My sweet old mom didn't know any better so for a couple years we were paying double. Where's my Avatar hat?!

10 years and all I got was this lousy image

I remember buying Xbox Live, and it came with a demo of Moto GP. I probably played that demo for 20+ hours, the best part was that the mics would activate when you were close to other racers, so when you were passing them you could mug them off.

I'm pretty sure I've been subscribed for 10 years. It's spread across two accounts though. :(

They sent me two. I must be doubly old.

I remember when I first got xbox live and playing halo 2 and not knowing how to actually get into a mechassault 2 game.

I got an X-Box with 3 games for buying my first car, but some sort of internet problem prevented me from ever signing up to XBL. MechAssault, Knights of the Old Republic, and some hockey game I think are what came with it.

Did they just remind you that you've spent $500 more than whatever the cost of your XBox 360 was?

I've only been a user for under a year. Got some stupid e-mail about the 10th anniversary, and I think it had some shit about deals on games.

@AiurFlux said:

60 dollars a year for 10 years is 600 dollars. Say they have had a constant million subscribers since day 1 then that's 600 million dollars. They've had more though. A lot more. Easily 3 billion dollars has been made off of XBL at the very least and it has had nowhere near that much put into it. Hell I'd say maybe at most they've put 100 million into the R&D as well as the infrastructure of that service. And yes I'm pulling numbers out of thin air. Call me Miss Cleo.

Gotta hand it to them. You put the one thing that people want behind a paywall and then over time force every game to have an aspect behind that paywall and you make a fuckload of money by forcing people's hands.

Don't forget how much they rake in on those darn advertisements. For real though, the live service is definitely a cash cow for Microsoft.

Yeah, I just noticed I was awarded the avatar helmet as well. My avatar is currently wearing it. I wouldn't mind a free game or something else though.

God forbid they throw everyone on the service a free game.

Wow, that's pretty cool of them.

@MideonNViscera said:

I got an X-Box with 3 games for buying my first car, but some sort of internet problem prevented me from ever signing up to XBL. MechAssault, Knights of the Old Republic, and some hockey game I think are what came with it.

your xbox came with your car? what kind of crazy thing is that.

i've only been on xbox 360 for like 3 years. it's what it has on my card thing. i never got an xbox. it's microsft's cash cow. i stopped paying for it because i found out that psn and xbox live are pretty much the same.

@msavo said:

God forbid they throw everyone on the service a free game.

gotten quite a bit of free stuff over the years on xbox live, just recently happy wars the free 2 play was released, wreckateer was released during the 10 year celebration for free....

Makes you realise how much money you are spending on what could essentially be free...but somehow even though you are paying...get bombarded with adverts.

@WilliamRLBaker: A crappy f2p title with questionable micro-transactions and a game that requires Kinect... Might as well just put up the middle finger to all the gold members.

"Alien Dating"

If you were a Turian, I'd be complimenting your waist or your fringe. So... your, uh, hair looks good. And your waist is... very supportive.

i have ten years. I actually pre ordered the original xbox live kit. Still have the black box somewhere. So yeah, i was there day one.

That was my third year in college and Mechassault was nearly my academic downfall. I remember starting a session at around 11pm one night and then realizing the sun was coming up and i had to shower and head to school.

This was mainly because most of my XBL friends in Mechassault and the original ghost recon were, inexplicably, from the pacific northwest area while i was living in brooklyn ny.

man, i have really fond memories of that time period. And also: old as shit. At least i have an avatar helmet now :)

I'm at 9 years. I fondly remember though going over to a friends house who somehow got in on the XBL Beta and playing some motorcycle racing game and an awful cartoony game show. I remember playing the shit out of the the original Ghost Recon and remember that if you used voice chat while a multiplayer session was being created, it would cause horrendous synchronization issues. Also...Midtown Madness.

I don't have XBL but it's nice they give you something for free, I think they should make XBL similar to PlayStation Plus. Give Gold Members free games each month and what not.