Microsoft Store Selling Discounted Yearlong Xbox LIVE Gold Subscription

I wrote earlier today about what a great deal PS Plus membership is, considering that the $50-a-year service offers up discounts and free games all the time. Of course, Xbox LIVE’s subscription service doesn’t offer much more than access to online services. In fact, it’s one of the only online services that charges money—PlayStation 3 and Wii U both go online for free (not counting, of course, your ISP costs).

But while I may bitch and moan about what Xbox LIVE doesn’t, it DOES do something pretty important: it works. It works pretty well, staying pretty consistently reliable—at least in my experience. Where we hear about PSN outages and maintenance work all the time, and the Wii U’s online capabilities are still ramping up, Xbox LIVE has stayed fairly consistent throughout the years. Sure, there are hiccups now and again, but overall, you’re getting a pretty solid service for the money (unless I’m crazy…feel free to correct me in the comments).

This is a long way of saying that today the Microsoft Store is offering up a $20 discount on a yearlong subscription to Xbox LIVE Gold, making the $59.99 service cost only $39.99. It’s a good deal if you like to go online…and until we know what the deal with Micrsoft’s next system is, it’s probably a good idea to re-up.

Even still…I hope that the next Xbox doesn’t make you pay to go online. That’s so 2005.