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Free Xbox Live for a year when you buy Microsoft Office 365

Microsoft is offering a year's free Xbox Live to anyone buying Office 365.

Richard Trenholm Former Movie and TV Senior Editor
Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
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Richard Trenholm
2 min read

Business or pleasure? Microsoft is offering both, as anyone signing up to Office 365 gets a year's free Xbox Live.

Aimed primarily at high school and college students, the deal sees new Office 365 subscribers given a free 12-month Xbox Live Gold subscription for button-bashing study breaks.

The offer is available to anyone who pays for an annual subscription to Office 365 Home Premium or Office 365 University before 28 September. Sign in to Office and you get a code to use on your Xbox 360 or at Xbox.com to claim your year's free gaming goodness.

If you don't have an Xbox but you have bought Office, you can unlock the bestest buddy achievement by giving your code to an Xbox-equipped acquaintance.

The deal is available in selected countries including the UK, as well as Ireland, France, and Germany. It's open to people in Australia, New Zealand and Canada, but not the US.

Xbox Live gives you access to extra content for your games as well as online multiplayer features. It usually costs £40 for a year of homophobic abuse screamed at you by a sexually-inexperienced teenager in Idaho, but now that will cost you nothing when you drop £60 on Office 365 University or £80 on Office 365 Home Premium. Office includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.

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