How to purchase an Xbox LIVE Gold Subscription in South Africa

30 Sep 2009

Even though Microsoft's been promising it for years, South Africa still doesn't officially have Xbox LIVE for multiplayer gaming. According to Microsoft this is due to low bandwidth availability, but even so local gamers have been playing on the UK and US Xbox LIVE servers for years.

Playing on Xbox LIVE requires three things:

An ADSL Internet connection
An Xbox LIVE Gamertag
An Xbox LIVE Gold Subscription

A Gamertag is free and can be created on your console, while a Gold Subscription will cost you somewhere between R150 and R500, depending on the supplier and the length of the subscription.

The following instructions assume that you have an Xbox 360 running the NXE (New Xbox Experience) dashboard. If this is the case, the interface you see after you turn on the console will look like this:

If your Xbox 360 is running the older dashboard software, the interface will look like the image below and although the screenshots later in the post will look similar to what your console displays, they won't look exactly the same. You'll be prompted to download the free NXE update after you've set up your Xbox LIVE Gamertag:

Creating an Xbox LIVE Gamertag

Start up your console, then connect an Ethernet cable from your ADSL Router to your Xbox 360 (or alternatively use the Xbox 360 Wireless Adapter accessory).

If your ADSL Router uses DHCP (it automatically assigns IP addresses to computers on the network), skip the following step explaining how to manually configure your network settings.

Press the Guide (Xbox 360) button on your controller, navigate to the right-most section ("Settings"), and select "System Settings". Select "Network Settings", then "Test Xbox LIVE Connection".

If the test fails, you'll have to select "Configure Network" on this screen and enter the Xbox 360's IP Address, Subnet Mask, Gateway Address, Primary DNS Server, and Secondary DNS Server manually. For example, if your ADSL Router's IP Address on the network is "192.168.1.254", your settings would be:

IP Address: 192.168.1.123 (the first three numbers should be the same as your router, the last number should be between 1 and 250 and unique on your network) Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0 Gateway: 192.168.1.254 (Your ADSL Router's IP Address) Primary DNS Server: 192.168.1.254 (Your ADSL Router's IP Address) Secondary DNS Server: 0.0.0.0

Press the Guide (Xbox 360) button on your controller, then select "Create Profile". If prompted, select whether you want to store your profile on your Hard Drive or a Memory Unit (if you store it on a Memory Unit you can easily take the MU with your profile to a friend's Xbox 360).

Enter a profile name when prompted. This might change later depending on the availability of the name on the Xbox LIVE network.

Select an avatar for the profile when prompted. You can customize this later if you want.

Select "Join Xbox LIVE", then choose "Yes" if prompted whether you'd like to exit your current session.

Select "Sign Me Up", then enter your (real) email address to create / select a Windows Live ID. If you have an @live.com or @hotmail.com email account that you use with MSN Messenger, you can use that address to see your MSN Messenger contacts on your Xbox 360. Enter and confirm the password for your Windows Live ID, then select "Continue". When prompted, select "Save Password".

Select a secret question when prompted and provide its answer, then enter your date of birth. These details will be used to recover your account if you lose your password.

When prompted to review your details, make sure that your Locale is set to "United Kingdom" (if you're using a @live.com or @hotmail.com address for your Windows Live ID, you may need to update this setting online as well), then select "Continue".

Accept the Xbox LIVE Terms of Use and Privacy Statement when prompted, then select "Continue".

Select "I don't want a Gold membership", and if you're offered an Xbox LIVE 1 month Gold Membership Free Trial, select "Continue".

When prompted whether you'd like to add payment information to your account, select "No, add it later".

Enter your First Name, Last Name, and Phone Number when prompted (you can use "000 000 0000″ for the phone number), then select "Continue".

When prompted to choose your gamer zone, select any option.

Set your Time Zone to "GMT+00 London" and Daylight Saving to "On" when prompted, then select "Continue". Select "Continue" again to confirm your details, then "Continue" again when informed that you'll be asked to create your gamertag.

Enter a gamertag (Xbox LIVE nickname) when prompted. If the gamertag is unavailable, you can enter a new one or select one of the on-screen suggestions. Select "Continue" to finalize the creation of your account.

When prompted whether you want to show your avatar as your gamer picture, select "No, just exit" (you can change your gamer picture later).

You'll be logged into your new Xbox LIVE Account and returned to the Xbox 360 Dashboard. If prompted to download the free NXE update, do so.

Purchasing an Xbox LIVE Subscription

Because South Africa doesn't have an official Xbox LIVE presence, South African credits cards can't be used to buy Xbox LIVE Subscriptions directly from your console.

However, there are several local and international websites that sell Xbox LIVE Gold Membership Subscription Cards (redeemable voucher numbers), including:

http://www.evogames.co.za/

http://www.take2.co.za/

http://www.gamepointsnow.com/

When you buy vouchers from these websites, make sure that you buy "UK" or "Worldwide" vouchers if you set your Xbox LIVE Gamertag's Locale to "United Kingdom", other vouchers will not work!

At the time of writing, the following options are available on the above-mentioned websites:

http://www.evogames.co.za/:
12 Months Membership (World Wide) - R389.00
3 Months Membership (World Wide) - R169.00

http://www.take2.co.za/:
Xbox 360 LIVE 12 Month Gold Card (UK Import) - R592
Xbox 360 LIVE 3 Month Gold Card (UK Import) - R240

http://www.gamepointsnow.com/:
Xbox 360 LIVE 12 Month Gold Membership (Worldwide) - ~R400
Xbox 360 LIVE 3 Month Gold Membership (Worldwide) - ~R176
Xbox 360 LIVE 1 Month Gold Membership (Worldwide) - ~R105

When you purchase a Gold Subscription from any of these companies, you can contact them and ask that they email the voucher code to you instead of mailing the physical card. Even with the international www.gamepointsnow.com website, I've never had to wait more than two days for the code to be emailed to me.

After you've received your voucher code, start up your console and press the Guide (Xbox 360) button, navigate to the right-most screen, and select "Account Management".

Select "Redeem Code", then enter your voucher code. The code will be processed and your Subscription will be upgraded from Silver to Gold, after which you can play online.

About playing on Xbox LIVE in South Africa

Although a Gold Subscription purchased with the methods detailed above will let you play against international players, South Africa's bandwidth limitations should be taken into consideration.

I have an uncapped 4Mbps line at home (currently the highest-speed residential ADSL connection available), but even so when I play against Europeans I usually have the worst ping. Connectivity lag can spoil your fun and accuracy, especially in first-person shooters, so you should ideally try to find South African players.

To find local players, take a look at and register on http://www.xbox360gamers.co.za/. After you've selected a game on this website, you will be shown a list of registered South African players of that game. Add these people as Friends on your Xbox 360 and you'll be able to see when they're online, join their parties and games, and take a look at their friend lists to find more people.