Game Pass Ultimate is the best deal in console gaming bar none. It offers day one exclusives, Microsoft Rewards quests, Perks (sometimes can be some really cool stuff), Xbox and PC Game Pass and just so much more. Unfortunately, at $15/month ($180/yr) with no annual plan, it can be rather hard to justify this. Well, there are two ways you can get this dirt cheap (or even free)
Microsoft Rewards
I wrote up a little entry here on how you can get, and utilize rewards, maintaining your GPU for free. At level 2, that runs about 35k rewards points for 3 months, which levels out to about 12k ($12)/month. I won’t cover how to do this again, because it’s all here.
Xbox Live Gold hack
You can utilize your current Xbox Live Gold subscription to automatically upgrade to Game Pass Ultimate. There are two paths to this, and two very distinct ways to do it. Here’s both of them
If you’ve NEVER used Game Pass before
If you’ve never used GPU (or Game Pass) before, this is where you want to start. Go to sites like Amazon, CD Keys, anywhere you can get that XBL Gold 1 year subscription card/code still (last I checked it was NOT available on Microsoft) and get three of them. This should run you around $50-60/card
Once you get yourself all stocked up with three years of gold on your account (load the cards), then jump into your xbox, and accept the $1 upgrade to ultimate. You’re then set with GPU for 3 years
If you’re currently a Game Pass (or ultimate) subscriber
Things are a little different here, but that’s ok. You can still pull it off, it’ll just be a little trickier to do.
Start by managing your subscription. Then click on cancel. No, don’t worry, you’re not going to lose time, or money. Let them cancel at the end of your subscription, so that you can sign up again.
Once you get all cancelled and have run your subscription out then you want to go to Amazon, Newegg, Walmart, CD Keys, wherever you can find a one-year XBL gold subscription code. Grab 3 of those and apply them to your account
Once you get those applied to your account, fire up your Xbox, and sign up for a GPU subscription. This will cost you one month (as opposed to $1 in the previous example) of service, but you’ll pay much less than you would have by remaining enrolled or paying month to month.
There you have it, two very easy ways to avoid paying full price for your next Game Pass Ultimate subscription. Stick around for more tips and tricks!