Xbox Game Pass Ultimate hack - too good to be true?

[OriginalFDM]

According to this article you can buy up to 36 months worth of Xbox Live membership from somewhere like CDKeys (£40 per year) and then when you sign up to the trial of Game Pass Ultimate it will convert any remaining months into Game Pass Ultimate Membership.

That would work out at £120 + £1 for 3 years of Game Pass - £3.36/m - when the standard price is £10.99 a month, saving £275.

That seems too good to be true - just wondered if anyone had done it, as there's no refunds once you've purchased Xbox Live membership vouchers, so I don't want to be the guinea pig!!

Also I've already had a £1 trial of Game Pass in the past so really hope it's not limited to one per gamertag.

[mmm-five]

I did exactly that last year. Don't know if it's still working though.

Had about 2 months left, so bought 3 batches of the cheapest 12-month gift card I could find. The applied them all to my Xbox Live subscription and almost immediately added the Ultimate option.

It also means I can use a lot of games on the PC too.

[DoctorX]

I believe they've stopped/are stopping the 12 month subscriptions. Use then now if you have them. Some talk of Live being free soon, although I suspect it'll be Game Pass Ultimate or nothing....

[Matt Cup]

I did this recently too. Only did 2 years though but managed to get 2 x Brazilian Xbox live working on my profile for about £70, then did the upgrade for £1.

[rustyuk]

I just bought a 12 month live pass from CD-Keys for about £36 on Monday. The system wouldn't let me purchase an x-box live extension but instead converted the code to 6 months of Ultimate Game Pass.

Not sure if that was a good deal or not!

[bunchofkeys]

rustyuk said:

I just bought a 12 month live pass from CD-Keys for about £36 on Monday. The system wouldn't let me purchase an x-box live extension but instead converted the code to 6 months of Ultimate Game Pass.

Not sure if that was a good deal or not!

Which 12 month option did you go for, was it the EU one?
Was thinking of buying 3 x 12month codes and then using my £1 offer to upgrade the 36 months to Ultimate.


Edit to say - Never mind. I just bought 3 x 12 months from Brazil (Just over £70 for 3 years subscription). Used a VPN to activate them of which two worked. Because i also received two free months, 1 month for each 12 month activation, i cannot activate the final code until September, when i'm under the 36month Xbox live limit.
Hopefully i will still have the £1 Ultimate offer.

Edited by bunchofkeys on Thursday 23 July 15:29

[OriginalFDM]

Well, I've just done it....bought 3 x EU cards from CDKeys (with 4% cash back on Quidco) and then added them all, took out the £1 game pass offer and I now have Game Pass Ultimate until July 2023...total cost £116...so just over £3/mo for 3 year subscription...

Even if they make Gold free it's impossible that they can offer it anywhere near that price surely, so seems a decent deal for a casual gamer....

[Matt Cup]

If I was to buy another 12 months live. Would it bump up the game pass to the end of that one?

[bunchofkeys]

I don't think it works like that unfortunately.

There is a one off offer of £1 to convert the current months you have to Ultimate. If you add another 12 months, they are not included in that conversion

[DoctorX]

I had about 6 months left on my current XBox live subscription. I've just bought 12 months from CD Keys, joined for £1 and my next monthly payment is in April 2022. Result! (I think).

[A Winner Is You]

Recently I've been purchasing one month with MS reward points, turning on auto renew for a free month, then switching it off again to buy another month with points. By clicking on a few Bing links a day and playing Game Pass you can build them up quite steadily.

[LeadFarmer]

Is this trick still working?

We have 9 months of Gold left, and I was going to buy a further 2 x 12 months to make it up to 2yrs 9 months, by selecting auto renew membership when adding each year I'm told I get an extra month free, so we will end up with 2 years 11 months of Gold (then turn off auto renew). Can I still then upgrade to Game Pass Ultimate for £1, which will convert our 3 years Gold to 3 years GP Ultimate?

Does it still work like that?

[mmm-five]

LeadFarmer said:

Is this trick still working?

We have 9 months of Gold left, and I was going to buy a further 2 x 12 months to make it up to 2yrs 9 months, by selecting auto renew membership when adding each year I'm told I get an extra month free, so we will end up with 2 years 11 months of Gold (then turn off auto renew). Can I still then upgrade to Game Pass Ultimate for £1, which will convert our 3 years Gold to 3 years GP Ultimate?

Does it still work like that?

I believe it's at a 3:1 ratio now - so 36 months of Gold will only get you 12 months of Game Pass Ultimate.
Sorry, was reading the wrong line in the FAQ (this was for EA Play to Game Pass conversions)

For Xbox Gold to Game Pass, you should get 1:1 as a new subscriber.

https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/xbox-game-pass said:

What happens to my prepaid months of Xbox Live Gold and/or Xbox Game Pass when I join Xbox Game Pass Ultimate?

When you join Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, we will apply any prepaid time you have on Xbox Live Gold and/or Xbox Game Pass toward Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, up to a maximum of 36 months.

For example, if you have 3 months of Xbox Live Gold and 3 months of Xbox Game Pass already on your account when you purchase your first month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, you will have a total of 7 months of Ultimate on your account before you need to renew your membership.

Edited by mmm-five on Tuesday 15th December 16:00

[LeadFarmer]

mmm-five said:

I believe it's at a 3:1 ratio now - so 36 months of Gold will only get you 12 months of Game Pass Ultimate.

Or is that conversion rate only for when adding further Gold to an existing GP Ultimate subscription?

Edited by LeadFarmer on Tuesday 15th December 14:28

[The_Jackal]

I did it last week.
I had weeks left on my Gold, bought 2 x EU 1yr Gold subs from CD key.
Added them in then took up the £1 Ultimate upgrade. Now I have 2 years of Ultimate.
The caveat is that you must not have had Ultimate before.

[LeadFarmer]

The_Jackal said:

I did it last week.
I had weeks left on my Gold, bought 2 x EU 1yr Gold subs from CD key.
Added them in then took up the £1 Ultimate upgrade. Now I have 2 years of Ultimate.
The caveat is that you must not have had Ultimate before.

Thanks, good to hear.
So the EU pass works ok on UK Xbox accounts? Or did you have to use a VPN?
I see the UK Gold pass is £45 on CD Key

[LeadFarmer]

Just managed to convert my three years of Gold membership to Game Pass Ultimate for £1 just now. Worked a treat.

Game Pass Ultimate automatically converts any existing Gold membership to Ultimate, so you need to load up with as much Gold as you can afford (max 3 yrs allowed) before upgrading to Ultimate.

Choosing recurring billing when redeeming each 12 months of Gold gives you an extra month free.

I already had 9 months of Gold remaining so I purchased 2 x years from CD Keys, and activated the codes, choosing recurring billing.
Then on the Xbox I chose the Ultimate offer for first three months for £1.
A message popped up informing me that all my Gold would be converted to Ultimate.
I then logged into my Microsoft Xbox account on my laptop and cancelled the recurring membership.
I now have Ultimate until Feb 2024, all for the cost of 2 yrs Gold plus £1, and they are also offering 1 month free trial of Disney+

[Bungleaio]

I've just done this too. Already had a 12 month gold code that I hadn't activated. I bought a 12 month, 6 month and 3 month code from cd keys. Used the reoccuring bonus to get it up to 36 months then converted it all to ultimate for a £1. Next payment due Feb 2024.

Amazing thanks for the heads up on this guys.

[LeadFarmer]

It's a stonkingly good deal isn't it. Im surprised they are doing it.

[The_Jackal]

LeadFarmer said:

Thanks, good to hear.
So the EU pass works ok on UK Xbox accounts? Or did you have to use a VPN?
I see the UK Gold pass is £45 on CD Key

Yeah the EU one is the normal one. The other one is a leftover from 360 days.
Although Brexit might fk it all up, it has everything else.