Multiple Gold Memberships With Xbox Live Family Pack

Come November, Xbox Live will offer a cheaper way to get the whole family their own Gold memberships. No longer will my friends think I’m the one with 98% of all achievement points in Fallout 3 and all its DLCs. Instead, they’ll know I’ve only just left the Vault. Yeah, the distinction’s important.

For $100, a Family Subscription will include four Xbox Live Gold memberships, unified billing, and special yet-to-be-declared content and discounts. Considering that a single Gold membership is $50 on its own, it’s a pretty good deal–assuming there’s more than two gamers in a family or household.

It’s part of Microsoft’s grand plan to bring families into the Xbox fold with more family-friendly content, controls and early/casual gamer products like the Kinect. The November launch dates for both the subscription pack and Kinect draws a pretty clear connection.

So, for families looking to have multiple kids and parents on the Xbox (Microsoft’s sweet dream, by the way), this is the product for them. Beyond the Gold memberships letting each family member have their own online gaming and social identity, the package comes with a Family Center that allows a single person to manage activities and spending on the console. It also makes it easier to put restrictions on certain memberships in the family (ie: Natalie’s no longer allowed to play games with headshots).

If you’re keen on the detail of those family settings, here’s what Xbox says the November upgrade will also include:

Family Programming that removes all mature games, movies, and content from the dashboard, based on ESRB, Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) ratings and the TV Parental Guidelines system . Family Programming is password protected, and easy to turn on and off for each member. (Compatible with international ratings systems.)

Title exceptions – the ability to allow your family members to play specific games above the console’s designated ESRB rating if you deem appropriate. (Compatible with international ratings systems.)

Intelligent default settings for child, teen, and adult profiles. Xbox will automatically assign default privacy and activity settings for each member that can later be individually customized.

Family Settings are displayed prominently in the MyXbox channel. Current tools include the Family Timer, which allows you to control the amount of time–either daily or weekly–your children may use the console.

[via Xbox Press]