Xbox Live Tenure – What the hell is it, and why should I care?

One of the lesser-known features of yesterday’s Xbox Live Update is the Xbox Live Tenure. What is it? It’s a visual display of how long you’ve been a gold member on Xbox Live, displayed as a number on your Gamercard; something the more astute – and voyeuristic – among you may have noticed yesterday. Why should you care? You really shouldn’t, unless it increases your digital e-penis and makes you feel better about yourself. From my standpoint, this is just another way for Microsoft to make money off people who care about their numbers being larger than their friends’. No gold membership? No pointless number next to your Gamercard. (PS, I’m a 2!)

Anyway, Major Nelson has compiled a Tenure FAQ, which you can find after the jump.

Q. My tenure is not displaying at all!
A.  The Gold Tenure is being rolled out to all Xbox LIVE users over the next few days. By next week, everyone who has at least 1 full year in Xbox LIVE Gold status will see their tenure.
Q. My tenure is exactly one year off. Why is that?
A. If you were a member of the Summer Update Preview and created your Gold Account on an Original Xbox console while living in Canada, your tenure won’t update to the proper number of years until your account’s next "birthday". For example; if you created your account on October 19th of 2003, your Gold Tenure will display properly on October 19th of 2009.
Q. I changed my gamertag 2 years ago because I didn’t like it. Will that reset my tenure?
A. Changing your gamertag won’t change your tenure, just like it doesn’t change your gamerscore.  
Q. I’ve been a member of Xbox LIVE since it began! I should have 7 years because it’s 2009.
A. The very first gamertag, e, was created on 8/13/2002. e, as he is known both online and in real life, will turn 7 on 8/13/2009.
Q. My account was in Silver status for awhile, how does that affect my tenure?
A. All the time you spend in Gold is cumulative and any time you spend in silver doesn’t count. For example if you created a gamertag on August 4th of 2007 but didn’t upgrade it to gold until February 14th of 2008; today the Gold Tenure would be 1 year because the account spent 6 months of it’s first year in Silver status.
Q. The article online says that if I had a 14 day break in my Gold account status, my tenure would reset! Is that true?
A. There is no "14 day gap in service" rule anymore. This was the original way tenure was calculated but we changed it. The KB article will be updated soon.
Q. I’ve been a member since 2006, why does my tenure only show a 2 when 2006 was 3 years ago?
A. Your Gold Veteran Status counts full years so if you’ve been a Gold member for 2 years, 11 months and 27 days; your status will display 2 years.
Q. The date in on the account details page on xbox.com says I’ve only been a Gold member for a couple months. When is that going to be updated?
A. The "Member Since" date that you see in the Account Management section on xbox.com and on your console is not the same as your tenure. That is the last time your profile was upgraded to gold (like the last time it auto-renewed or you applied a subscription code).
Q. Where can I go to see exactly when I paid for my Gold account?
A. You can login to Billing and Account Management to view your payment history. That will show you exactly when you were Gold vs. Silver. You’ll need to login with the Windows Live ID associated with the GamerTag. (Click on your payment type and you’ll be able to see your payment history).

Thanks, Major Nelson

Last Updated: August 12, 2009