Xbox Live – Silver Evolves To Free

Xbox Live’s “Silver” status has decided to hit the high road, and “Free” has settled in. Microsoft has decided to do away with the Silver edition of XBL and Free has taken its place.

Trust me, it’s more than just a name change.

Now Xbox Live Gold still exists as the better-paid subscription, but XBL Free, but Silver has seemed to fall out of favor in Microsoft’s eyes. If you go to Xbox.com you will see the memberships broken down into three columns: Free, Gold, and soon to come Gold Family.

Here is a breakdown of what is available on a Free Xbox Live Account:

Preview games with free demos
Watch HD movies and TV from Zune
Download new games and game add-ons
Create and customize your Avatar
Control movies with a wave of a hand or the sound of your voice with Kinect

The only difference with Gold is the ability to watch instant movies from Netflix, view live sports from ESPN, use Video Kinect and Facebook, play music through Last.fm, and the ability to play games online with friends.

So it looks like Microsoft is taking it up a notch. What do you think?

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