Thursday 7 September 2006

This month, Xbox 360 gamers with broadband connections will be upgraded to Xbox Live Gold for absolutely nothing, giving everyone the chance to experience Live's superb setup without spending a penny.

On 20 September Microsoft will 'flick the switch', triggering 10 whole days of costless online gaming, before shutting it all down on 29 September. The big tease.

Brilliant news, unless you've already got a Gold account of course. But with such a huge range of online-enabled games for 360 - and titles like the brill, massively-multiplayer online racer Test Drive Unlimited out tomorrow - we imagine there'll be plenty more Gold account holders once Microsoft's cunning free period comes to an end.