My family was introduced to the xBox 360 at Christmas (there are 5 of us - me, my wife, 8-yr old son, twin 5-yr old girls). The xBox package included a 12-month xBox Live Gold subscription -- we haven't used it. In fact, we haven't even established accounts at the Silver level even though the xBox is connected via ethernet to our router. My wife asked about establishing Live accounts and I tried to do some research at the MS xBox site to get a beter handle on it. Unfortunately, the info seems very vague / contradictory. An email to the xBox Live support team produced a message to "call in."

According to the xBox site, each 360 console provides Live access at the Silver level -- unfortunately it also states that a "limited" number of accounts (without saying the number) are available. We have 5 separate accounts / gamertags - enough available?

Can I establish 5 Silver accounts from our xBox 360?

I assume (but correct me if wrong) that the Gold subscription card permits one account / gamertag to access Gold-level membership (but not others)?

I know that you used to be able to set up multiple silver accounts on one console, but not too long ago they put some sort of a limit on it. I'm not sure what the limit is...they used the word "multiple" as the limit.

I'd say set up the gold account, then add your silver accounts in order of importance and see how many it allows. Can't hurt to try.

Remember though that you can set up as many profiles on your console as you want. These don't allow online play, but they do let everyone have their own identity. Think of it as separate user accounts in Windows XP. Allows you to keep settings the way each player wants them, and you can use those in offline multiplayer games.

I dont know how many accounts you can have on one system, but I do know they can all be a Gold membership. I have multiple Gold accounts on mine...

I have 1 Gold + 3 Silver for my family. But I set it up a long time ago...

Thanks for replies. To be clear - we have five profiles set up on the console -- one for each of us. We just haven't set up any Live accounts from the console or any MS website. And our possible Gold account is via a subscription card (such as you might buy retail) encased in plastic -- my wife and I won't play online, and I figure my son won't need / want to play online or have need for other features of Gold until our own game library is larger and he's a bit older (and I'm not sure I want him online just yet). So the Gold card sits in a drawer.

Real questions are:

1. Can we establish five different Live accounts (at Silver - no cost) from the console (and do we need to or is one account good for many profiles)?

2. Is the Gold account card sufficient for only one profile / gamertag or is it applicable for all profiles stored locally on a console?

Thx.

When you set up a Live account, it's basically an online enabled profile. You can't sign in to your Live account under another profile...it's a profile in and of itself.

If no one in your household has the want/need to play online, there's no point in setting anything but a single Silver account up, and that would be useful just for downloading updates and marketplace items. Downloads are available to any profile on the console once they are stored on your hard drive.
Silver doesn't allow you to play online (except once in a blue moon when someone sponsors a free weekend).

I've got 4 gold accounts on my 360. At one point on the old xbox, I had 8 (I think).

The gold card you have is good for only one gold membership. I have no idea about the silver accounts.

dont forget, that gold account card probably has an expiration date, so i wouldnt let it sit in the drawer too long.

Thanks for all the help.

I called xBox support today -- I still haven't gotten around to trying set up Live accoutns -- and was told that up to 10 Live accounts are available on each 360 console.

Did they specify Gold or Silver? I'm too lazy to look for it now, but I remember them setting a limit to the # of Silver accounts you could have on one box....maybe it was how many one person could sign up for, not sure.

quick question guys. I have a gold account with which I've purchased quite a few live arcade games with. If I add another gold account to my console, will that account be able to access the purchased games or do you have to purchase them seperately for each account?

Anyone on that console that the games were originally downloaded on will be able to play it on that console. Only the user that bought them can download again without another charge.

Thanks man.

Sorry to bump an old thread, but figure I'd circle back -- I set up 5 silver accounts this weekend for the family without much trouble. I also cracked open the Gold card to find that it must be used prior to June 30, 2007 (thanks, formulanerd, for reminding me that there might be an expiration date printed on it that I couldn't see through the packaging).

(thanks, formulanerd, for reminding me that there might be an expiration date printed on it that I couldn't see through the packaging).


no problem, i remember seeing a value pack of some sort on sale, came with some free arcade games, but they had expiration dates, and that's probably why it was on sale, none of the "free" stuff that made the value pack worth it would have worked anymore.

hate to see someone screwed because of a silly expiration date.