Free Xbox Live Trial For Silver Members Confirmed Free Gold Service on Xbox Live For A Week For US Based Xbox Owners

Microsoft have officially confirmed that, by way of celebrating the
integration of new Xbox Live services such as the Xbox Live Facebook and
Twitter functionality, they are offering up a free upgrade to their Xbox
Live service for Silver members in all Xbox Live regions expect for us
Europeans (quite why Europeans are excluded is not explained but that s
sure to get a few people s back up, and understandably so).
The Xbox Live Gold free access, which is open to US based Xbox owners,
whilst being touted as a celebration of new Xbox Live features
(Facebook, Twitter, Last.FM, Netflix, et al)ย is, we suspect, rather
more driven by Microsoft wishing to drum up more Gold subscriptions,
but, MS s true motivation aside, free access is free access, right, and
if you re a Silver member looking to experience Live s new services then
here s your chance, at no cost to you.
According to Major Nelson, the free Gold service trial will run from
November 20th from 12n ET /9a PT /17:00 GMT until November 23rd from
12n ET /9a PT /17:00 GMT " though quite why they offer these details in
GMT, what with Europeans being excluded, wholly eludes us (quite bizarre
" kind of rubbing salt in the wounds, really).