Hi OZB community,
It looks like after all the stacking and conversions, my Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription is going to expire in 2 weeks time.
What is the best way to renew the XGP subscription? I remember that JB Hi-Fi used to have a buy 3 month get 3 free months but it looks like this has expired. Are there any 12 months options to save a bit of money?
Thanks in advance
Benny
Does one need a new account for this or the expired/cancelled will be okay?
I've been topping up using eneba previous post. ie. Converting 12 months of EA to ultimate 4(?) months. $30-ish. Brazil VPN is cheaper option but wasn't sure about the whole expire/cancel situation.
Does one need a new account for this or the expired/cancelled will be okay?
No need for a new account.
Some people have reported that the conversion cost $15.95 instead of $1 but in any case, THIS IS THE WAY.
Just did 2x12months of Xbox Gold Japan from G2A (~$40.30*2).
Wasn't sure if the 12 months EAplay would convert properly so it'd be great for others to see if anyone can follow up.
Buy 52 7-day passes from eneba.com
Does anyone know if the the gamepass available on HN website would work similar to Ultimate? (I don't need the added benefits of PC gaming)
https://www.harveynorman.com.au/xbox-game-pass-electronic-vo…
No - there's a significant and important difference - Console Game Pass does not include Xbox Live Gold, which you need to play most multiplayer games online (free-to-play games do not require Gold to play online).
If you follow this guide for renewing an expired Game Pass/Xbox Live account, it's significantly cheaper to just get Game Pass Ultimate https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/579366
Thanks heaps for confirming. And yes I do require Xbox Live Gold so I will need Ultimate.
I am thinking of just paying the monthly fee and hopefully a deal comes up with bonus free months etc.
Why not the Brazil option mentioned earlier?
Have read about the method previously mentioned, and while it may be annoying its one of the most cost effective methods. Brazil XBL via VPN then converting to GPU would be the cheapest on a new/expired account
$1.56/week = $81.12/yr
Yeah have to agree with the other comments here. This is Ozb, the cheapest way is the best way, and it really isn't much effort.
@PTG Benny: If you're not comfortable with getting an overseas Xbox Gold code (i.e. a Brazilian one from cdkeys.com), and using a VPN to redeem them:
You can still grab two 12 month digital codes for Australia from JB for $80each
Then each time you add the code at https://www.microsoft.com/redeem , turn on recurring billing (adds a free month), go to your account, turn it off, then add the next code with recurring billing (don't do this if you buy 3 years worth of Gold, as you can only stack 3 years at once).
Then upgrade to Ultimate, and you'll at least have 26 months worth for $160ish. Not as cheap as an overseas Xbox Gold code, but still way cheaper than month by month.
@tdth99: Thanks heaps for this info. So what is the difference between the 12 month Xbox Live cards to the Ultimate cards. Does 1 month of Gold equal 1 month of Ultimate.
@PTG Benny: The Ultimate cards will give you straight Game Pass Ultimate. However if you have an expired account (i.e no Game Pass, no Xbox Live), you can stack a bunch of Xbox Gold (which is cheaper), then choose to upgrade that to Game Pass Ultimate, Microsoft will upgrade your entire time of Xbox Gold to Game Pass ultimate. So yes, in that case it does equal 1-1.
@tdth99: Ok awesome thank you! So my Game Pass Ultimates expires on the 16th June so I have turned off recurring billing. Do I need to wait until 17th June before redeeming the 12 month Xbox Live card?
@tdth99: I was just reading that they are planning on phasing out 12 month Xbox Live Gold cards soon. https://www.gamesradar.com/au/looks-like-the-xbox-live-gold-…
Hi @tdh99,
thanks for this great information. My kid is telling me that if I cancel the subscription, he will loose all the games. Is that true? Is there any workaround?
Thanks in advance,
Niraj
Hi Niraj,
If you cancel your subscription the games that are on game pass you will lose access to. You won’t lose the saved files but you would need to actually buy the games that you want. Is that what you mean?
Thanks for the reply. Yeah so if I resubscribe again on same xbox, i won't lose games is that correct?
Yes that is correct, whenever you decide to subscribe again to Xbox Game Pass you will have access to these games again, assuming that they haven't been removed from Game Pass that is.
anyone have issues buying on cdkeys? wont let my purchase go through. Also anyone tried MTC Game?
For the past couple of years I have just been cycling through the $1 month or three month deals, I have around 5 accounts and when my current subscription expires I just go through the accounts and usually there's a deal, if not just make a new account. You need to make sure the Home Xbox setting is on as it shares the subscription through all of your accounts on your Xbox, also remember to turn off auto renew. It is a bit tedious, but I get game pass ultimate for around $9 a year.
Anyone done this Brazil key method recently? Just got 12 months Gold, added to my account with VPN no worries, but now keeps erroring when trying to upgrade to Ultimate for $15.95 (used the $1 deal ages ago).
Message tells me it will like-for-like my subscription from Gold to Ultimate then errors tell me "It looks like something went wrong, but we can help. Contact Microsoft Support at support.microsoft.com"
Have tried removing payment methods, and using Paypal instead of credit card. No go.
24 hours later, worked fine. If in doubt… wait.
Hey mate, mine expires on the 8th so want to do the same. Did you purchase the key from cdkeys.com or another site? Didn't need VPN to purchase, just to apply to your Xbox account?
I used Electronic First for mine. Purchase and then enable VPN to add code to account.
@Tock: Thanks Tock. Looks like the 12 month pass has expired on Electronic First now, will keep an eye out in the future though. Cheers
Hey everyone, so I followed the brazil VPN guide and successfully added 2 x 12 month xbox live gold memberships to my account.
Then when I go to upgrade to game pass ultimate it has the option of $1 but then when I try it says:
Change your Microsoft Store region
You currently have a subscription from a different region. If it still doesn't work, please contact customer support.
If I switch region and address back to brazil it works… but not sure if I should pay this way? Anyone else seen this and if so what did you do?
Got i had a similar thing and had to use MS online support and they converted my sub over to Aus. Lucky got a rep who did not look into it much. I see other people had no issues but this was my first time trying and it was not as smooth as described.
Hey guys, I'm a little confused and am also in the same position as OP. I've already claimed the $1 upgrade so are my options:
1. Get 12 months for Xbox Live and convert them to 4 months of GamePass Ultimate?
2. Get a 12 Month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate key?
Or is there another way I'm not understanding? And what is the cheapest way for all options?
So this comment answered my question and is the way I went. It was really easy, just remember to turn off your recurring billing to get an extra month for $1.00
tdth99 on 02/06/2021 - 14:02
@PTG Benny: If you're not comfortable with getting an overseas Xbox Gold code (i.e. a Brazilian one from cdkeys.com), and using a VPN to redeem them:
You can still grab two 12 month digital codes for Australia from JB for $80each
Then each time you add the code at https://www.microsoft.com/redeem , turn on recurring billing (adds a free month), go to your account, turn it off, then add the next code with recurring billing (don't do this if you buy 3 years worth of Gold, as you can only stack 3 years at once).
Then upgrade to Ultimate, and you'll at least have 26 months worth for $160ish. Not as cheap as an overseas Xbox Gold code, but still way cheaper than month by month
Thanks for your reply, but how do you get 26 months of Ultimate? The conversion table on https://www.xbox.com/en-AU/live/gold/upgrade says you get 4 months Ultimate for 12 Months Gold so even with the extra months with recurring billing, you'd only get 10 months from your two 12 month codes right?
The conversion may have changed since I did it because 12 months gold was definitely 12 months ultimate when I renewed. And the 2 years with the two $1 subscriptions got me the 26 months.
Hopefully someone else here can provide more info for you on how this works now
Hmmm, the conversion ratio is when you already have an ultimate membership, and add normal gold to your account, from the faq linked to just above:
“After you join Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, you can continue to redeem Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass for Console and PC codes. These codes will automatically convert to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate based on the following conversion table. Conversion ratio subject to change.”
If you don’t have ultimate, The terms for the $1 deal say there is a conversion ratio for new ultimate accounts. But it seems it is still 1:1 unless anyone knows different?
Let it expire or forcefully cancel it.
Get 1-3 years of Xbox Live Brazil (using VPN) and convert to GPU for $1.