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Added by Jeff Gerstmann on Dec. 4, 2008

"One"
"One"
Xbox Live Silver members--those are the guys that don't pay Microsoft's fees for full Gold status that I would call "goldbrickers" if that wasn't so confusing--have free access to multiplayer in eight games. This is Microsoft's new "Friendship is Free" program. Don't worry, though, I'm sure they have a team of skunkworks engineers working very hard on a way to charge for friendship.

Here are the eight games that freeloaders can get into for the rest of December:


So, that's a decent variety that covers a few genres. And Aegis Wing is free, so anyone can get in on that. But also, most of these games have a pretty hefty multiplayer component. So I can't help but think that anyone who isn't already a Gold member wouldn't have bought many of these in the first place.

I'm sure that Microsoft has a series of charts and graphs hidden in a back office somewhere that would prove me wrong. It's probably on the same whiteboard as the initial plans for a "Friendship is Available For A Small Fee" program.


21 Comments

OmegaPirate
on Dec. 4, 2008
Wow, good decision to stick turbo HD remix in that selection, should totally help convince people to put a bit more into their membership!

JamesF
on Dec. 4, 2008
Cool.

giyanks22 is online
on Dec. 4, 2008
cool.......i have gold

TekZero
on Dec. 4, 2008
Cool, but sadly nothing really exciting in that list.

They should make the older XBL games free to get more people to play them.. like Shadowrun and Chromehounds.

TomA
on Dec. 4, 2008
umm,whatever cool i guess

mrlogical
on Dec. 4, 2008
That is the funniest image caption in the history of ever.

Captain_Fookup
on Dec. 4, 2008
people have silver accounts?

TekZero
on Dec. 4, 2008
Captain_Fookup said:
"people have silver accounts?"

As of right now, I don't really see a point to continue my subscription when it expires in March.  I just don't play enough games online to warrant the price.. even if it is a couple bucks a month.

kagato
on Dec. 4, 2008
Its good to know that silver members can play games for free...for a while anyway, but if they where interested in playing online im sure they would have gone gold long ago.

MattC
on Dec. 4, 2008
Jeff said:
"So I can't help but think that anyone who isn't already a Gold member wouldn't have bought many of these in the first place."
This is probably the reason for the promotion in the first place. They want to sell more copies of these games to Silver members. Maybe some of them will follow through with a Gold subscription, like those who are convinced to get Street Fighter to play online, but I don't think it's much aside from that.

Kush
on Dec. 4, 2008
It would be nice if they just let Silver users play all XBLA games online...

ColumnBreaker
on Dec. 4, 2008
Really, they just need to cut the bullshit and make it free. Give the people with active gold accounts some kind of benefit, free xbl arcade game or games to reflect the amount of time they've prepaid for.. whatever, and just make the shit free.

PlasmaBeam44
on Dec. 4, 2008
I reverted to Silver just last night. So I guess I'll play Uno online until I get more Gold.

diz
on Dec. 4, 2008
I think we should identify these silver freeloaders and kick them from our Kefling kingdoms!
Smart move M$, I heard UNO is huge on-line, so friendships garnered over these free games might persuade more people over to the gold side.


Bill_Hickz
on Dec. 4, 2008
As crazy as it sounds i dont want Live (gold) to be free, i love the quality of the servers and the new NXE, my m8s and i use Live to communicate (me more so than a phone), and the new party update is great that i can chat with my all my mates without playing the same game. My only gripe is why does it automaticly go to the SPOTLIGHT menu when i log on why not MY XBOX like it fukin well should im paying for it dont advertise to me, i know were the fukin Marketplace is. PEACE

BlazeHedgehog
on Dec. 4, 2008
That's how they getcha! The first hit's free, man!

Media_Master
on Dec. 4, 2008
....another whatever article

Media_Master
on Dec. 4, 2008
....another whatever article

chonch95
on Aug. 11, 2009

cool

Video_Game_King is online
on Aug. 11, 2009
Freeloader? That's mean, Jeff. Not all of us are freeloaders; in fact, a lot of us are just incredibly lazy people without friends :P.


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