Microsoft’s Game Pass Ultimate subscription lets you play a bounty of games that makes it all but essential for Xbox and PC owners.
By joining, you’ll receive access to more than 300 titles - including Grand Theft Auto 5, Exoprimal, Fortnite and Halo Infinite - with new additions arriving all the time and some available on release day.
The games can be played on console, PC and streamed over the cloud on internet-connected laptops, tablets and smartphones.
Think of it like Netflix for gaming.
On top of that, you also get access to EA Play, EA’s own gaming service, home to the likes of FIFA 23 and Need for Speed Unbound.
Though it’s already a good deal at £13, you can get Game Pass Ultimate for far less with a relatively simple workaround. The trick essentially converts a cheaper Xbox Live Gold subscription into a Game Pass Ultimate membership.
In fact, you can currently grab a 23-month subscription for as little as £4.17 per month.
Time is running out to grab this deal, however, as Microsoft is replacing Xbox Live Gold with a new Xbox Game Pass Core tier on September 14.
What is Xbox Game Pass?
It’s worth noting that aside from Game Pass Ultimate there are two cheaper Game Pass plans - Game Pass PC for £8 per month and Game Pass console for £9 per month - but they don’t let you play on multiple devices or stream games, and offer fewer additional perks, such as discounts on in-game content.
A third tier, Game Pass Core, will effectively replace Xbox Live Gold on September 14. Priced at £7 per month or £50 per year, the new plan will come with a reduced library of 25 games, along with support for online console multiplayer.
To make the most of the Game Pass hack, however, it’s worth forking out a little extra for Game Pass Ultimate.
How to get Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for a massive discount
Unfortunately, Microsoft recently diluted the deal to a conversion ratio of 3:2, down from its original rate of 1:1.
What that means is that 90 days of Xbox Live Gold will now get you 60 days of Game Pass Ultimate, instead of the exact same amount of time.
Still, that’s cheaper than coughing up £13 for Game Pass every month.
To get the discount, just follow these steps:
- Buy 11 x 3-month Xbox Live Gold membership codes at £7.99 for a total of £87.89 from discount digital games retailer, CDKeys. By stacking these up, you’re unlocking 33 months of Gold.
- Now, purchase one month of Game Pass Ultimate for £7.99 from CDKeys so that you can upgrade.
- New members can get it for even cheaper with the 1-month trial offer for £1 available on the Game Pass website.
- Activate your membership by entering the codes online or on your Xbox.
- Make sure to turn off recurring billing on your Microsoft account page, so that you’re not charged when the time period expires.
All told, you should now have access to 23-months of Game Pass Ultimate at the current conversion rate for a grand total of £95.88 - or £4.17 per month.
It’s important to note that this method will only work if you don’t already have an active Ultimate subscription. If you do, you can cancel it and wait for it to expire and then do this trick - otherwise, if you try to redeem a code for Gold, it will get converted to Ultimate at a lower rate.
You can also purchase Xbox Live directly from Xbox for £6.99 for a month or £17.99 for three months, but it’s always worth checking other sites, like CDKeys or Amazon, to see if it’s on sale for cheaper.
Whichever way you slice it, you should now have access to Game Pass Ultimate for less than the asking price. Game On!
