Xbox Live Family Gold Pack - $100, coming November 1st?

[quote name='thrustbucket']there is a special on the dash for an extra month and 800 points if you sign up. My buddy already bought it and called them up. They gave him 800 points and 20 percent off.[/QUOTE]

reeeeeally. I've already converted, as well. i'll have to give them a call.
 
I really think they messed this thing up. They should allow all xboxes on the same subnetwork to share all download content without restriction. I'd be more then happy with that arrangement. I think having it go beyond a single house is twisting what this is for, or at least what it *should* be for, which it apparently isn't: for a single household. I can't imagine they really want to discourage people from buying more then one xbox for their house, but that's exactly what they do and have always done. WEIRD.
 
how does the conversion work? i tried to find out on xbox.com, but all it gives me is "yes you can convert your current gold, click to BUY NOW"
 
[quote name='crunchewy']I really think they messed this thing up. They should allow all xboxes on the same subnetwork to share all download content without restriction. I'd be more then happy with that arrangement. I think having it go beyond a single house is twisting what this is for, or at least what it *should* be for, which it apparently isn't: for a single household. I can't imagine they really want to discourage people from buying more then one xbox for their house, but that's exactly what they do and have always done. WEIRD.[/QUOTE]

From a technical standpoint, restricting it to a subnetwork has two major problems 1) Easy to exploit (trick the xbox into thinking it's on a private network when it's not) and 2) They would have to rewrite the DRM for every piece of content out on XBL.

[quote name='shosh']how does the conversion work? i tried to find out on xbox.com, but all it gives me is "yes you can convert your current gold, click to BUY NOW"[/QUOTE]

What do you mean how does it work?
First, I'd suggest clicking on the ad in your dashboard to do it, as you get 800 points and an extra month through a promotion.

As the master account holder buying the gold family pack you will get $5 off for each remaining month you have in your current subscription. As you are adding people to your family account, any gold they have will convert two months to one and add it to your time.
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']

As the master account holder buying the gold family pack you will get $5 off for each remaining month you have in your current subscription. As you are adding people to your family account, any gold they have will convert two months to one and add it to your time.[/QUOTE]
yea thats what i wanted to know. how much of my current gold goes into a family account

from the looks of it, it seems its a dollar to dollar amount from 60 for a years sub converted to 100 of a family sub. so i would assume that if i buy a years worth of gold at a store for a single account it would apply 60 for a family account. are there any restrictions in conversions to a existing family plan? would be good to know so i can get some live time at retail on sale.
 
[quote name='shosh'] are there any restrictions in conversions to a existing family plan? would be good to know so i can get some live time at retail on sale.[/QUOTE]

The limit is 20 months. If you have 21-36(the max allowed) stored on your live account, all that extra time is lost forever and you gotta basically just eat the losses. From what I heard, you CAN'T add a 12 month gold card to "extend" your family account, or credit it $60 off the following year, what have you. I don't have confirmation there though, just heresay.
 
I sent @XboxSupport a message on twitter asking what happens if you add a 12 month gold card to a Family Gold account after the fact and the answer was:

@crunchewy You aren't able to add single user prepaid cards to a Family account, sorry. ^EM
Click to expand...

Well, that sucks. So if you opt for a family gold account, you are a captive audience. There's no discounts from retailers on future extensions.

EDIT: I followed up with the question of whether there would be Family Gold cards at retail and their response was that they had no info on that.
 
Thanks for the info crunchewy. My idea for a workaround would be to sign up for family with 20 months on your account so you don't pay the $99. Turn off auto-renew. Let it lapse at the end of the year reverting your accounts back to silver. Sign your master up with a couple of on-sale 12 month cards solo. Convert the account back to family and bring in your other accounts for free. No idea if it'll work after the year is up, however, as there's no way to try yet.
 
[quote name='mrosnwo']Thanks for the info crunchewy. My idea for a workaround would be to sign up for family with 20 months on your account so you don't pay the $99. Turn off auto-renew. Let it lapse at the end of the year reverting your accounts back to silver. Sign your master up with a couple of on-sale 12 month cards solo. Convert the account back to family and bring in your other accounts for free. No idea if it'll work after the year is up, however, as there's no way to try yet.[/QUOTE]The real trick might be to load up two Gold accounts with 36 months' worth of Live @ $30 (total cost $180), put them together as two account under a family plan, which should net out at a 3-year family plan, then start two new sub accounts under it.

Should net out at 36 months of family plan at $300 cost over the three years for $180.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']The real trick might be to load up two Gold accounts with 36 months' worth of Live @ $30 (total cost $180), put them together as two account under a family plan, which should net out at a 3-year family plan, then start two new sub accounts under it.

Should net out at 36 months of family plan at $300 cost over the three years for $180.[/QUOTE]

I've thought about that too, except it only allows you to convert 20 months max to the family plan, per account. Those excess 16 months would be lost. Plus the secondary account only gains half the credit as the primary account as well.
 
After an initial snafu in which I switched to Family Gold, but then couldn't add anybody to the Family, which apparently was caused by an "emergency problem" with Family Gold (according to Xbox Support), I was finally able to add my kids. I'd added two 12 month cards to their accounts (one each) and after that conversion we're now good through 11/2012. And we have an extra gold account we can give out to friends/family when they visit, or perhaps use to inject additional 12-month cards (for 6 months Family Gold) in the future. Yeah! Unfortunately there was no free points offer nor anything else. Oh well.
 
[quote name='Techsticles']Ouch!
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/Live/JoinLive/FamilyPackFAQ
Q: What if I have more than 20 months remaining of Gold? Do I lose all of that extra time?
A: If you have 20 months or more of Gold remaining, you can upgrade to Family Pack for free. Any remaining balance of Gold months in excess of the 20 months will be cancelled and you will not receive a refund for that remaining time.
Click to expand...
[/QUOTE]

I'm not sure this is really legal, at least here in California where 'gift cards' cannot expire.
Of course, someone would have to challenge it in court for anything to change...
 
What I can't figure out is why I thought my kids would play games online on the Xbox. I don't think we have any games on the 360 that have (active) kid-friendly online. You'd think Snoopy Flying Ace would qualify, but it doesn't. Playing that game online is an ass-kicking for me, let alone my 9 and 7.9 year olds. It is absolutely no fun for them (online - they have fun with it offline). My son also tried Sonic & Sega Racing, but no one was online. He'll try it again, though.

I'm just going to hope that at some point I find reason to believe that I didn't waste money (and existing Gold time of my own) on this.
 
[quote name='The Notorious ROB']I noticed that they have a "code redeem" box for the Xbox Live Family Gold.

Hopefully this means that we will be able to buy them at retailers.[/QUOTE]

That is good news if true. Xbox Support said they had no info on retail cards, but didn't say there weren't going to be any. Perhaps this means there will be. Otherwise I see confusion anyway ("You mean I can't use this Live Gold card to add time to my account???"), so it makes perfect sense.

I've got 2 years of Family Gold stocked up and I got some of that time free from a past promotion, so I'm going to just look at it as breaking even more or less (vs. a single-user Gold). Maybe by the time the 2 years are up my kids will be more competitive online. I'll try not to fret it. :)
 
[quote name='crunchewy']What I can't figure out is why I thought my kids would play games online on the Xbox. I don't think we have any games on the 360 that have (active) kid-friendly online. [/QUOTE]

Am I reading too much into this? Are the family accounts restricted to certain games that can be played online? Like Halo and CoD..as long as it is not M rated. Or is this guy looking for kid oriented games with an abundant group of players online all the time.

Also, any rumors of upcoming deals like the one where they gave MS points and a XBLA title?
 
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