Xbox Live Accounts Demystified

There's been a lot of talk about Xbox Live® profiles and accounts and migration and recovery and what it all means. So I took it upon myself to sift through all the gnarly details and report back to you.

So here it is. Before Xbox 360™ launch, you could have an Xbox Live account (or subscription), which came with a unique gamertag. You could play games, download cool stuff, and generally have a grand old time on Xbox Live. For Xbox 360, we included gamer profiles with Xbox Live accounts (or memberships, as we now call them), which added a bunch of gaming goodness like achievements, personalization, and Gamerscores. And just to complicate things, we made two types of memberships: Silver and Gold. Of course, you can also have an offline profile that has nothing to do with Xbox Live. Simple, huh?

Profiles
Before really getting into the account stuff, I'll touch briefly on profiles. You can have two kinds of profiles on your console: offline and online. Offline profiles are the quickest and easiest to set up. All you really have to do is pick a name and a picture, and you're set. This is great if you just want to get to the games right away. And, if you don't have Xbox Live, you can always add it on later.

Online profiles are associated with an Xbox Live account. While offline profiles can be named whatever you like, the name of your online profile is your gamertag, and must be unique. If you already have an Xbox Live account on an original Xbox, or if you created a gamer card on Xbox.com, you essentially already have an online profile even if you haven't yet downloaded it to your Xbox 360.

Things get kind of sticky if you already have an Xbox Live account and then you make a separate offline profile. Technically, they're two different profiles (even if they have the same name), so any achievements you earn or games you save won't be transferred from one to the other. It's really best to get your Xbox Live account downloaded to your Xbox 360 as soon as you can, so you can start racking up achievements on your online profile.

Account Creation
If you're brand new to Xbox Live, signup is easy. Create yourself an offline profile, then join Xbox Live to go online. You can do this in one fell swoop during initial console setup, or, if you're waiting on broadband or just want to play offline first, you can sign up later. Just choose Join Xbox Live from the Xbox Dashboard or Xbox Guide when you're ready. For info about signing up for Xbox Live, click here.

Account Recovery
Account or gamertag recovery is a broad term for downloading your existing Xbox Live profile and account info from Xbox Live to your console. You can use recovery to get any Xbox Live account (whether created on an original Xbox®, Xbox.com, or Xbox 360) onto an Xbox 360.

With the original Xbox, you could use recovery to put your account on multiple consoles and switch between them freely (also known as roaming). With the advent of achievements and additional profile info that has to be kept in sync, you can now only have one Xbox Live profile active on one Xbox 360 console at a time. That means when you recover on one console, any copy you have on another console is invalidated. If you go back to that console, you'll have to recover again.

Because there's so much stuff associated with your profile now, we recommend that you use a memory unit to roam with your profile. Recovery on an Xbox 360 is really meant for first-time setup or to replace a lost or corrupt profile.

Account Migration
Migration is a type of recovery. (You may hear "migrate," "activate," and "modify" used interchangeably. It's all the same thing.) When you recover an original Xbox Live account to an Xbox 360 for the first time, you're updating your account with Xbox 360 info. This is migration. You'll need a few things in order to migrate your account:

• An active original Xbox Live account: If your account is expired or cancelled, you'll have to create a new account.
• Your original Xbox Live account info: If you linked your gamertag to a Passport Network account, you can use that instead.
• A Passport Network account: If you don't have a Passport Network account, you can create one using an existing e-mail address.

So, let's say you want to migrate your Xbox Live account on your original Xbox to Xbox 360. Xbox Live has to verify that you're the owner of your account. There are two ways to do this: by entering your original Xbox Live info or by entering your Passport Network user name (e-mail address) and password.

When you first signed up for Xbox Live, you entered some account info, including your name, credit card number, phone number, and postal code. Providing this info lets us know you are who you say you are.

As I said above, however, there's an alternative to digging up your old info. A while back, we started encouraging people to link their gamertag to a Passport Network account (known then as a .NET Passport). If you went to Xbox.com and linked your gamertag to an e-mail address and password, you probably did this. If so, Xbox Live will ask for this info instead of your original info during account migration. Don't worry, if you don't remember, you can choose to enter your original Xbox info.

After we've verified your identity, you'll be asked to fill in a few more things. One of these things is your Passport Network account, if you didn't already enter it to verify your identity. You can use a Passport Network account that you already have, or you can create one. You may actually have one already and not realize it. You have a Passport Network account if you have a Hotmail, MSN, or Xbox.com account, but you may also have gotten one from another site.

Check this real quick by trying to log in over at www.passport.net with your e-mail address and password. If it turns out that you don't have one, you can create one using an existing e-mail address during migration.

If you're still confused about account migration, check out the help pages for Xbox Live Migration issues.

Membership Types
Just a quick note about membership types. Two kinds of memberships are currently offered, Silver and Gold. A Silver membership is free and gets you on Xbox Live so you can send messages, chat, and download updates and game content. A Gold membership will, for a fee, get you into the heart of Xbox Live—multiplayer gaming and other premium features.

If you're migrating an original Xbox Live account, your account automatically converts to a Gold membership. For more info about membership types, check out our Gold Standard article.

One cool thing about the new Xbox Live is that you don't have to have a credit card for anything. You can just do the Silver membership free, or you can purchase a Gold membership card from a retail store. If you want to download premium content, you use Microsoft Points. You can purchase Microsoft Points cards at your Xbox retailer. Microsoft Points cards are the perfect gift—tell grandma to get you one of those!

So, there you have it—accounts in a nutshell. See you online!

Article by Elle