Free LIVE Arcade game offer

Itching for a gratis Xbox Live Arcade game? Microsoft is offering one of five titles for free, but you have to follow these three steps:

1. Sign up for 12 months of Xbox Live Gold between now and January 5. It must be done directly through Xbox Live, meaning you can't use that prepaid card your mom or significant other bought you as a gift.

2. Decide what game you want free: Zuma, Marble Blast, Sonic the Hedgehog, Assault Heroes or 3D Ultra Minigolf. Do this step in your head.

3. Download a gamer pic or theme related to the game. Only the first one counts, so make sure you didn't skip Step 2 before downloading a picture of a putter when you're hoping to nab Sonic.

See, folks? Even with digital distribution, TINSTAAFL applies: There is no such thing as a free lunch. Of course, if you were needing to upgrade or renew your subscription anyways, you might as well get something extra out of it.

[Peter Griffin]

So basically its $50 bucks?

[MUGEN]

* Plus the cost of a avatar pack/theme.
The sad part is that it's only for stupid people that spend $50 for 12 months. People(me) that buy the redeem code cards for under $40 are lower class to Microsoft I guess.

[lokiroo420]

Still not bad for those already renewing their subscription.

[gw4k]

How I wish I could be online and enjoy thee....but thy dearest 360 committed Suicide for the 4th time today. Thank you MS for repairing my baby over and over and over and over. Maybe my 5th system will work for longer than 6 months.

Enjoy Live my friends. Enjoy!

I will have to load up the PS3. Errr Still good but not Live.

[hektop]

Buy short games for $50.00 what a bargain

[I_LOVE_MYSELF]

yeah... like mgs4 lolololol

[y0haN]

HEY. YOU. STOP THAT!

[crck]

Or smart people can just go to Amazon.com and buy the 13 month prepaid card on sale right now for $39.

[BRG9000]

It's been "on sale" for $39 with free shipping every time I've seen it all year. It's definitely the way to go.

[TIKUP]

LMAO^^ This is a brilliant deal folks, you canbuy this or a full on disc based game!! Take your pic...............one again microsoft are being stupid!!

[THELANDOFSAND]

SNEAKY! Guess when the rush for new sign-ups are- Christmas day after everyone opens their gifts.

MS know how to pull people in. I may take advantage of this...

:)

[darthv72]

mine automatically renewed back in november. Oh well. good deal to those renweing or signing up between those dates.

[GiantEnemyCrab]

Yes, it's rather lame that people who auto-renew don't get any of these perks.

EDIT: After re-reading it looks like it's for everyone even auto-renews as long as they renew while this offer is going can get these. Might have to check this out since my sub renews during this time.

[LostChild]

Once you sign up with your credit card, you can not (I repeat) you can not remove it from live and yes, they will automatically charge you when it comes time to renew. If you are renewing between the time frame, go for it. Otherwise, move along people.

[NaiNaiNai]

"calls MS XBL department."
"yes can i cancel my XBL account."
"yes but i need to get your information."

your a idiot sir.
-nai-

also if you reset to factory settings if your selling it, it removes everything....let me say that again.......EVERYTHING...kk
-nai-

[LostChild]

I said nothing about cancelling your account. I said not being able to remove your credit-card from your account. Most people forget/don't know about the automatic charge when their renew date due near. This causes their credit card to be charged again without their knowledge and they only thought they were paying for just that one year. Go ahead and try to remove your credit-card WITHOUT canceling your account. It's not possible.

[NaiNaiNai]

thats also why you can call MS
its not that hard to say, i want this removed,
or call your credit card company and they can restric it from being pulled. so much work. only for a damn sony fanboy.
-nai-

[LostChild]

Me-Hi I would like to remove my credit-card from my account because I just want to use prepaid cards from here on out for my payments.

Rep-Sorry sir we can't do that?

Me-What do you mean you can't do that?

Rep-Your credit is attached to your gamertag/live account. If we remove you credit-card information, we will have to suspend your account/gamertag all together.

Me-But I just want my credit-card information removed. I still want to use the live service/gamertag by using prepaid cards.

Rep-Sorry sir, you will have to cancel your account in order to remove your credit-card information. This will then suspend your online gamertag as well.

Me-And there is no other way to remove my credit-card info besides this, without suspending me gamertag?

Rep-That is correct sir. Do you still want your credit-card information removed?

Me-(Thinking) Um...No, I don't want to suspend my gamertag. But I have question. How long would it take to remove my credit-card info if I did cancel all together?

Rep-It will be 3-4weeks before your information is totaly removed from live.

Me-Okay, thanks. (Hangs up the phone)

Some rants about this: http://forums.xbox.com/2468...

Oh by the way: On live before Halo2 came out. On my 5th 360 but yep I sure do love being a Sony Fanboy as you say. I could careless about what console is winning. I started gaming before Nintendo became a house hold name. So please take that fanboy crap up with someone else.

[Amnesiac]

Every time I come on N4G I always seem Nai trying to sound smart and getting owned.

[ReBurn]

Microsoft will remove your credit card information if you call them. They won't want to do it. It takes forever and you have to get pretty ticked off. But eventually they will do it. I'm a Microsoft credit card removal survivor. And they didn't say they needed to suspend anything. Immediately after I got off the phone my account information said that my credit card was expired.

[NaiNaiNai]

funny how i got my credit card removed, and it wasnt like that. and you ever think when they said "suspended" they ment no XBL and you could go get a card and start it up again, not like they could delete your gamescore and account off your xbox. but then again you wouldn't know that would you.
-nai-

[GameOn]

My membership renews in that period but I might give it a miss. I need to buy sum points to get the pics and I dunno if its worth the effort with those games.

[TheROsingleB]

I Like how the pic on the xbox website is for Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which is not offered on the list. Nice job Microsoft :|
Assault heros is a decent game, shame I dont need to re-up my subscription until half-way through next year.
Oh Well.

[Amnesiac]

Should change the title. Very misleading. Nothing free here.

[ReBurn]

Except the game that you get when you buy a year of Live and download a gamer pic or theme, right. Didn't you read the offer?

[Amnesiac]

What's free about paying 50$?

[ReBurn]

The game that you get is free with the $50 you pay for Live Gold. It really sounds like you're trying to make it sound like the game itself costs $50, but you know as well as I do that the game isn't what the consumer is paying for. Since Live costs $50 with or without the game, it only stands to reason that the game is free when you buy Live.

See how I explained that?

[Amnesiac]

The title is misleading because it states "Free LIVE Arcade game offer". This may lead someone who is already a LIVE subscriber (like myself) into thinking they can get a free game. You know, a game that's actually FREE.

Paying 50$ and then getting a "free" game is like taking the "free" mints at a restaurant after you've spent 50$.

If you don't get that, then I don't care. I'm out of bubbles anyways.

[gangstardo]

i been the biggest fan of the xbox 360 for the last couple of years. i first got my xbox 360 in January 2006 . it was the awesome for about a whole year then it broke. i didnt know what to do with my xbox for 7months till July 2007 and the new warranty came to effect. by August 2007 i had a new refrub xbox and a free 1month card to xbox live.

Xbox live i first signed up to xbox live August 2007 man it was so fun i only played one game but it was the best, The OUTFIT, spent hours playin this game online meet tons of ppl from around the US and World(mostly the UK) still have ppl on my friends list i meet playing this ,now crappy game, back then it was off the chain. after the end of my one month membership i bought the 1 year membership and many games followed Halo3 , gears or war (release one year prior), and Call of duty 4. These are some of the most competitive on xbox live this past year.

Stats
halo3 :level 36 commander grade 3 about 1500 xp
gears of war : 3000 plus kills warzone 1000 plus kills excecution countless hours on annex
Cod 4 : over 30 days logged 50000 plus kills S and D the only game mode i played search and destroy .stop playing this September

Recently The new xbox experience release november 17 this killed xbox live mutiplayer.

xbox live multiplayer used to be fun, intense, competitive. nowadays its just lame. why ???

because everybody is in xbox live parties

xbox live parties are homo and are the downfall of xbox live mutiplayer. game modes and complete games are now broken

Gears or war for example once you died in warzone you couldnt talk to your teammates now with xbl parties a dead player can give info to a live player on enemy locatoins planted frag mines especially with the ghost cam

search and destroy on call of duty series is now lame same as gears of wars once you died in Search and destroy that was it no communication with the live members of the team.

i can keep going and going just not in the mood anymore

in the end i will continued to play Xbox live since i have it prepaid till march 2010.

[likedamaster]

These are the gifts they offered me specifically.

1.Hexic 2

2.Hardwood Spades

3.Poker Smash

4.N+

5.Crackdown Getting Busy Bonus Pack: New vehicles, weapons, game modes, equipment, and achievements.

6.Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack

There is also an offer to get 400 microsoft points when you get a new xbox live subscription which can be obtained through your console or through a prepaid card.

[MiztaToungueTwista]

oh yeah this looks like oh so much fun ./sarcasm

[Bad_Karma]

Microsofts generosity knows no bounds .... HEY MICROSOFT could you kick us extra hard in the balls too please ...we`d be oh so greatful