During E3 2019, Xbox revealed two new subscription services in Game Pass for PC andXbox Game Pass Ultimate. The first is self-explanatory, Xbox’s Game Pass service now with dozens of PC games instead of just Play Anywhere titles, but the second is much more interesting. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate combines the Game Pass subscription for both Xbox and PC, as well as Xbox Live Gold, into one single subscription for half the price – just $14.99 a month.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is a decent discount for those who may already have been subscribing to both Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass. And it’s a great discount for those who want to add Game Pass on PC to their Xbox console subscriptions. But Xbox has even better savings at hand for those willing to upgrade to Ultimate, an upgrade path that anyone can use to get Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for up to 3 years at closer to$5 a month instead of $15.
Here’s the deal. Microsoft policy going forward is to allow those upgrading either their Xbox Live Gold or Xbox Game Pass subscriptions to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to convert all of their pre-paid time to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate without any extra charge. In other words, if an Xbox user has 8 months ofXbox Live Goldpaid for on their account, they can upgrade and then have that 8 months converted to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. The only limit is a cap of 36 months of pre-paid months.
In other words, if someone currently has zero months of pre-paid Xbox Live Gold on their account right now, they are able to go out, buy 3 pre-paid 12-Month Xbox Live Gold codes for between $50 and $60 from Walmart, Costco, Amazon, or the like, add those codes to their account, and upgrade it all to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. That’s a $15 a month service that cost less than $5 a month, or, perhaps better put, less than a full-priced game at $60 a year.
Here’s an efficient way to go about the process:
Note that, after upgrading, it’s entirely possible to revert back to standard Xbox Game Pass or standard Xbox Live Gold once all pre-paid time has run out. You aren’t locked into Xbox Game Pass Ultimate forever. It might even be possible to take advantage of this upgrade deal again, as it seems to be policy and not a special promotion.
