During this pandemic kids (and adults) feel they are stuck at home (most of the time) and if you are one of those parents or adults or youngsters, XBOX Ultimate is the best and cheapest option, especially with the EA acquisition, to get into gaming or spend some time in the digital world of game. Please feel free to add your thoughts in the comments below.
You can convert your XBOX Gold Live Subscription up to XBOX Ultimate up to 36 months for just $1 (or $15 if you already used the $1 promotion in the past but currently expired). Basically, you can have a $15/mo subscription for about $4.5/mo (cheaper if you look around). You can save about $375 for 3 years.
Here is how you do it.
Short Instructions: Load up to 35 months (or 33 months with the current Dec. 20 MicroSoft’s promotion) of XBOX Gold (get codes from Costco or other retailers for annual or bi-annual or various monthly combinations, more details below) and Upgrade it to Ultimate for $1.
Important Note: If you have only three or n-number of months of Xbox Live Gold or Xbox Game Pass (or a combination of the two) on your account, you’ll end up with three or n-number months for your Game Pass Ultimate subscription, plus the additional one month from the trial. So, 35 months of prepaid time can be transformed into Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for 36 months (three years).
Note 0: Turning the auto pay will add an additional month (so possibly two months), depending on your situation turn on/off before starting the upgrade.
Step by Step Instructions.
Step 1: Purchase Codes up to 35 months (or 33 months)
Purchase or Add up to 35 months to an Xbox Live Gold subscription using digital subscription codes. Get the XBOX Live Gold which is cheaper.
Costco sells 24-months Subscription for 95 (cheapest available) and get 11 more months of subscription from other sources (CDKeys, Ebay, Eneba, Microsoft, Amazon, Microsoft points, etc.) Prices vary, in general you can get it for about 6/6.5 dollars per month.
Also do so in the largest increments possible—a 12-month code for Gold works out much cheaper per month than the one-month, three-month, and six-month varieties. Note that Microsoft’s servers won’t let you redeem a code for a duration that exceeds the 36-month cap. (Example: You’re at 36 months, but attempt to redeem a one-month code. The servers will not let you activate it.)
Note 1: Short multi-day trial codes for Xbox Live Gold won’t work for this promotion
Tips: Currently Microsoft’s promotion is $1 for three months Ultimate upgrade, so keep it to a maximum of 33 months.
Step 2: Activate Codes
If you don’t have an account, create one. If you have an account that doesn’t have any purchased games or points, creating a new one might be a better option for some, YMMV. Note Microsoft allows 5 accounts per IP. Login to your account to activate your Xbox Live Gold codes.
Note 2: If you have three 1-year subscription codes for Xbox Live, do not agree to recurring billing in order to redeem your final code.
Step 3: Upgrade your membership
Click on the upgrade option to upgrade and Activate the $1 Xbox Ultimate Trial. Note if you already used a similar upgrade on your account and it is expired, although it may say $1 trial, but at the billing session, it will change it to $14.99 (Welcome to Microsoft).
Note 3: You will pass through bunch of screens and finally you will see a successful upgrade screen.
You should be able to see “Xbox Game Pass Ultimate” listed under Services and Subscriptions.
Note 4: Game Pass Ultimate subscription is set to recurring billing by default. Just in case, turn this off to avoid surprise charge on your credit card after 3 years (or however many months later you upgraded)
XBox has tons of free games, and you should be able to enjoy Xbox on PC and with the EA acquisition, this is the best deal you can expect. A word of caution, some of these games are therapeutic and addictive. We don’t know how long Microsoft will let this slide, make use of it/enjoy while it lasts, especially if you kids or you feel stuck at home during this pandemic.