The first indication that something was afoot came from Major Nelson himself. Larry Hryb, current head of programming for Microsoft's Xbox Live platform, said in a tweet that the company plans on celebrating the 10 year anniversary of Xbox Live with its users; and already the freebies have begun to appear.
No competitions have been announced or entered, no gaming journalists are being teased, this looks like Microsoft is simply rewarding long time Xbox gamers with a surprise and it's a big one. According to images posted over on Kotaku, it's a free Xbox 360 anniversary edition, along with custom controller and Xbox Live 10th birthday box.
It's being speculated that the person that received it may well have just had his ten year anniversary of having an Xbox Live account. That's at the very least a few hundred pounds of Live subscription costs, but a custom Xbox could end up being worth far more than that in the long run – depending on how many of these Microsoft ships out.
KitGuru Says: When did you guys get Xbox Live for the first time? Have you had it going since?
I paid for about a year once, then discovered the PS3 and its free ability to play games online. Why should I pay to play a game i’ve just paid £30 for online?
Then there is the last update, to use the browser, guess what?! YOU GOTTA PAY. Ridiculous.
I had Xbox live from day 1 then started a new one for the Xbox 360 because m$ kept sending me emails in French and I am English, no way of changing it, I then kept gold for 2 years till my first Xbox died I then waited 6months before I got a new Xbox so I was without a Xbox live gold for 6 months but then I had to get 2 more Xbox 360s since then I am on to my 4th Xbox 360 and the cd draw dose not work on it so I been with out Xbox live on and off because of this and I lose out again because M$ gave me all these problems