My sons 10th birthday is coming up and he wants an xbox minecraft party since all the boys are into it, I have two HD tv's next to each other, two Internet connections, two xboxs and eight controllers. One account on each box will be Live Gold, but is that enough? If all accounts need to be live gold then that's getting to be a significant investment (you can't buy a gold membership for a day, or even a week it seems). Is it enough that the one gold player on each side joins the game and the other three on each console join in?
Should work with each set of 4 in the split-screen, but I don't think that will work with all 8. With just 4 you really only need to be playing on the console the game was bought on. If it was bought separately for each console then both could be used at least for offline 4 player.
To get 8 I think everyone in the room does need to have a live gold, since that means online for the most part. While silver which is the free account all you can do is offline stuff & split screen.
This is one reason I would have loved if they made options to system link & split screen. Unfortunately they didn't. I am unsure though if just a guest could sign in, but I do know that it has to be the gold member running the game. Maybe there is a way. Well it use to work, but progress would not be saved by using a guest account. I really don't know how that works since I haven't done that in a long time.
What I do know about is what I mentioned above about 4 player offline. Don't know if you could do an 8... sorry I wasn't much help, but I tried to articulate what I do know.
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The three non-gold members on each Xbox will have to sign in as a guest of the gold membership. Have the gold memberships sign in and launch the game. Then start up the second, third, and fourth controllers on each Xbox and have them press start. A screen asking them to sign in should appear where you can select "Guest." Keep in mind that player stats for guests are not retained once the game is saved and shut down... So, if the same players will want to play again as a guest another day, be sure they empty their inventories into a chest before leaving the world. That way, they will still respawn at the initial respawn point (rather than in a bed), but at least they will be then able to retrieve their stuff from the chest. Also, their activity will not apply for leaderboards or achievements.
Yes I see what you mean, seems nobody is really sure about this. Yes, each console has paid up minecraft installed, and that would be run initially by the games 'owner' who is XBLG, and then I'm hoping that local guests in each machine can join, without XBLG accounts (only silver) and without killing the online game. Seems to be very little information out there about running in this configuration.
The three non-gold members on each Xbox will have to sign in as a guest of the gold membership. Have the gold memberships sign in and launch the game. Then start up the second, third, and fourth controllers on each Xbox and have them press start. A screen asking them to sign in should appear where you can select "Guest." Keep in mind that player stats for guests are not retained once the game is saved and shut down... So, if the same players will want to play again as a guest another day, be sure they empty their inventories into a chest before leaving the world. That way, they will still respawn at the initial respawn point (rather than in a bed), but at least they will be then able to retrieve their stuff from the chest. Also, their activity will not apply for leaderboards or achievements.
First definitive answer! Thanks UPUP, I will continue to test this!
I think you can LAN the Xboxes together by connecting both of them via an Ethernet cable. I don't think you need Gold for a LAN Party as this is the kind of thing they do at a game Expo. This way you should be able to have each console split screen on main/guest accounts and then all 8 in a world together. I'm not 100% but may be able to find something about it on the internet.
Never mind just read it doesn't support LAN Sorry!!
Yes, thought of connection using null modem cable, but that's unsupported sadly.
UpUp is correct. Just make sure all controllers are plugged in upon starting the world on the "host" Xbox, it will prompt everyone to sign in. Then, same with the second Xbox. Make sure all controllers are plugged in, then when the Gold account goes to join, the others will prompted to sign in.
This is the only way I can sign in to the guest accounts on my Xbox. I don't know if they're all the same in that respect or not, just thought I'd share just in case.
luckily, you can spend more time testing this than asking here before the party.
You need 2 Live Gold accounts.
You need to have bought MC360 with one of those accounts and used it to download to both Xboxes.
Then you need to login with the account that purchased MC360 on the opposite xbox that it bought it on
(the game is licensed to be used anywhere by the account that bought it, and by anyone on the xbox it was purchased on)
Make sure both xboxes are plugged into the network (you don't need 2 internet connections, you need one Internet provider, a router and some cables) and that network is connected to the internet.
Now power up those xboxes and login on each with the proper Live Gold account
Start a world with one xbox, then join it with the other
Now plug in some more controllers and hit the Start button, that'll make them prompt what account to use (keep choosing the Live Gold account/guest).
Before you know, you'll have 8 controllers all signed in.
Despite all the advice to the contrary, it does not look like this is possible. I've tried all kinds of tricks to make this happen, such as joining the second controller during a game, having it on at the beginning and so on. Everytime the XBL Silver local 'guest' tries to join, MC throws up the message "Failed to join the game as one of more players are not allowed to play multiplayer games of Xbox LIVE". Seems they have this bolted down pretty tight :-(. Looks like we've to forget this idea. There's no way I'm buying XBL gold for every party member. Damn.
Well, writing that last post got me thinking, and I reread what Janx said and suddenly a light went on!! I was using XBLS on the other players, but actually I need to sign in as 'guests' of the XBLG accounts!! Got it, we tried it with 3 on one box (1xXBLG, 2xGuests) and 1 (XBLG) on the other and it worked perfectly. The other kids are bringing another 4 controllers between them next week having a total of 8, and we'll be good to go. Really happy this worked - thanks all. Have a good Thanksgiving!
Well, writing that last post got me thinking, and I reread what Janx said and suddenly a light went on!! I was using XBLS on the other players, but actually I need to sign in as 'guests' of the XBLG accounts!! Got it, we tried it with 3 on one box (1xXBLG, 2xGuests) and 1 (XBLG) on the other and it worked perfectly. The other kids are bringing another 4 controllers between them next week having a total of 8, and we'll be good to go. Really happy this worked - thanks all. Have a good Thanksgiving!
Glad you got it worked out. Just also keep in mind - IF any of these children might want to come back and play in the same world again, they should be sure to put their inventory in a chest for themselves before leaving the game. Player data (i.e. spawn point and inventories) are not saved when the player is a Guest of a XBL gamertag. Each time the system is booted up and guests are signed in, it assumes that it is a different guest than the previous time.
To get 8 I think everyone in the room does need to have a live gold, since that means online for the most part. While silver which is the free account all you can do is offline stuff & split screen.
This is one reason I would have loved if they made options to system link & split screen. Unfortunately they didn't. I am unsure though if just a guest could sign in, but I do know that it has to be the gold member running the game. Maybe there is a way. Well it use to work, but progress would not be saved by using a guest account. I really don't know how that works since I haven't done that in a long time.
What I do know about is what I mentioned above about 4 player offline. Don't know if you could do an 8... sorry I wasn't much help, but I tried to articulate what I do know.
First definitive answer! Thanks UPUP, I will continue to test this!
Yes, thought of connection using null modem cable, but that's unsupported sadly.
This is the only way I can sign in to the guest accounts on my Xbox. I don't know if they're all the same in that respect or not, just thought I'd share just in case.
I have had a guest (with a silver account) play split screen with me online in the past so UpUp's suggestion should work.
I hope your son and his friends have an awesome time.
You need 2 Live Gold accounts.
You need to have bought MC360 with one of those accounts and used it to download to both Xboxes.
Then you need to login with the account that purchased MC360 on the opposite xbox that it bought it on
(the game is licensed to be used anywhere by the account that bought it, and by anyone on the xbox it was purchased on)
Make sure both xboxes are plugged into the network (you don't need 2 internet connections, you need one Internet provider, a router and some cables) and that network is connected to the internet.
Now power up those xboxes and login on each with the proper Live Gold account
Start a world with one xbox, then join it with the other
Now plug in some more controllers and hit the Start button, that'll make them prompt what account to use (keep choosing the Live Gold account/guest).
Before you know, you'll have 8 controllers all signed in.
Giddy up.
Glad you got it worked out. Just also keep in mind - IF any of these children might want to come back and play in the same world again, they should be sure to put their inventory in a chest for themselves before leaving the game. Player data (i.e. spawn point and inventories) are not saved when the player is a Guest of a XBL gamertag. Each time the system is booted up and guests are signed in, it assumes that it is a different guest than the previous time.