Xbox Live Gold is Microsoft's premium online service for the Xbox 360. It was introduced with the launch of the Xbox 360 at $50 per year, but has since been raised to $60 per year. The only way to play games online on Xbox 360 at all is with an Xbox Live Gold account. The free Silver accounts are heavily restricted in their actions, and cannot play online nor join parties with their friends on Xbox Live.
Reception to Xbox Live Gold has generally been very positive. Many media sources have called it the gold standard for console online play, but the high costs and mandatory costs to play online have caused much criticism to be levied at the service. The rival PlayStation 3, while lacking many of the features of Xbox Live, offers online play for free.
As of January 5, 2011, Xbox Live has over 30 million subscribers.
Free Games
During E3 2013, Microsoft announced that two games will be released every month that Gold Members get to keep.
Announced games
