Watch the Game of Thrones season 4 premiere for free on Xbox One and 360 this week

The first episode for the fourth season of Games of Thrones will be available to watch, for free, on Xbox platforms this week.

And that's actually free, not the usual 'but you need to have Xbox Live Gold free': an HBO subscription is not required, and nor is Xbox Live Gold.

The initiative is part of a new Xbox hub for the show, which also features some behind-the-scenes videos, trailers, and interviews with the cast of the show. There's even a quiz.

Variety reports that the season four premiere for Game of Thrones drew almost 6.6 million viewer on HBO over the weekend, and that the episode is lined up to become of the most pirated episodes of a TV show in history.

Game of Thrones airs Sunday on HBO until June 15.