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Gold Family Pack leaves the Xbox Live nest
The Gold Family Pack has divorced from Xbox Live. Following a couple of tips indicating the pack had disappeared earlier this month, we reached out to Microsoft who confirmed the offer was removed from its service."The Family Gold offer is no longer available for purchase," a Microsoft representative told us. "The Family Center experience with settings management, allowance granting, child activity reports and family subscriptions management are still available for current Family Gold members at this time."As for why the pack was discontinued, the rep said, "We continually evaluate our business focus and work to offer services that make the most sense for our customers and Xbox."Microsoft introduced the Family Pack to Xbox Live back in November 2010, offering up a discounted $99.99 bundle of four year-long Gold memberships, along with Family Center functionality allowing users to manage family members' content and purchasing access.
PSA: Xbox Live Gold Family Pack now available
Here's a friendly reminder that the Xbox Live Gold Family Pack is now available. The Family Pack offers up extra four Xbox Live Gold accounts -- along with some extra parental controls -- for $99 a year, a substantial savings over four separate accounts. Before you and three buddies splurge on the Family Pack though, know that there are a few caveats. The most notable restriction is that only the Primary account holder is allowed to make purchases against the Family Pack's billing account. This makes sense for parents looking to regulate what their kids purchase, but it's not terribly convenient for say, your dorm buddies. Thankfully, MS Point cards can be redeemed by any account under the family plan, so it's possible to work around the restriction. Also, all four accounts must reside on the same Xbox before being transferred to a Family Pack. Once an account is part of the Family Pack, however, users are free to recover them on another console. Finally, all content will be licensed to the console on which it was purchased, as well as to the account that purchased it. In other words, if little Jimmy buys an XBLA game, everyone on that console can play it, but Jimmy can play it on any console so long as he logs into Xbox Live. $99 is definitely a good deal for four Live accounts, but we suggest reading through the Family Pack FAQ before taking the plunge.
