Sometimes it's hard to fathom just how long a service like Xbox Live has been around. Then a gamer will stumble across a hidden treasure, such as the one that was found inside a copy of Burnout 3, that revealed an old Xbox Live card from nearly 20 years ago.

The service known as Xbox Live debuted two decades ago this year, and it has been going strong in one iteration of the Xbox internet offering or another for a long time. Over the years, Microsoft has not been stingy about trying to get people to sign up for one of these accounts in order to give the service a try. That means it has handed out quite a few trial subscriptions, and those trial subscription cards used to be included in the boxes for Xbox games so that people could see all the benefits that might come with a new game.

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It appears that at least one person didn't want or need to use a trial subscription back when the service was still relatively new as one social media post demonstrates. Redditor nine16s took to the site to show off that he opened up a used copy of Burnout 3 and found an unused Xbox Live card from 2004 that would allow the bearer to try out the service for two months free.

The particular version of Xbox Live technically doesn't exist anymore as it has transitioned to Xbox Live Gold and could eventually go away (or at least its name could) entirely. Despite the fact that the service has changed what it offers quite a bit over the years, some other Reddit users were convinced that nine16s could still redeem the included code.

However, other users pointed out that even if the rumored Xbox Live Gold shutdown isn't true, this particular trial subscription card can't be used anymore for one very simple reason. It turns out that the card has an expiration date of March 31, 2005.

Despite this card not making a useful Xbox gift card these days, it's still an interesting testament to just how long Xbox Live has been around and how Microsoft went about trying to lure players in to try out the service that allowed them to engage in multiplayer contests. If nothing else, it's an interesting keepsake from the early days of Microsoft's entry into the video game industry.

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