Free Xbox Live Gold: Microsoft Bundles One Year Of The Service With Office 365 Subscription In U.S. And Abroad

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is offering new subscribers to its Office 365 service one free year of Xbox Live Gold. The offer is available to consumers who purchase a 12-month subscription to Office 365 Home Premium or Office 365 University from July 18 to Sept. 28.

Early reports stated the offer was not available in the U.S., which turned out to not be the case -- the promotion is good in the U.S. as well as many other countries. Visit Microsoft’s Office web site for a full list of countries where the free Xbox Live Gold promotion is available.

Xbox Live Gold is a premium service offered to owners of Microsoft’s Xbox 360. Xbox Live Gold allows gamers to play online, get exclusive access to game demos and stream Netflix and other services. Office 365 is Microsoft's subscription service, where consumers can pay for one year of its Office suite of products -- including Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint -- for $99 for a regular subscription and $79 for a University subscription for students.

How To Get Free Xbox Live Gold

To get the free 12-month Xbox Live Gold subscription, new users will have to activate an Office 365 subscription purchased from now until late September. Then, new customers will need to sign into a Microsoft account to get a free code for 12 months of Xbox Live Gold, redeemable on Xbox.com.

Microsoft is marketing the new promotion to students on its website, saying that the free Xbox Live Gold will “make school enjoyable all year round.” Current Xbox Live Gold users who sign up for the promotion will get the extra year of service added to the end of their existing subscription.

Xbox Live Gold subscriptions will also work on the upcoming Xbox One video game console. The Xbox One has a tentative release date of Nov. 27.

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