Walmart is selling 12-month Xbox Live Gold cards for $30. The full retail price when purchased directly from Microsoft is $50.

If you’re still chugging along with the free Silver membership, here’s what upgrading to Gold gets you:

• Multiplayer games
• “TrueSkill matchmaking”
• Parties (not real-life parties)
• Gamer feedback (vote down jerky players)
• Netflix (you have to also have a Netflix membership)

Should the service be free? I vote for YES! But Microsoft will never listen to me. And $30 is better than $50, I guess.

Xbox Live 12-Month Gold Card [Walmart via dealnews]