Get the free Xbox Game Pass up to 3 years

Update: Originally released earlier this week, this agreement is still available for the moment. We will update it to note the expiry date of the transaction at $ 1 (which could be anytime, now that the E3 comes to an end.)

This case seems too good to be true. But that's not it. During this week's E3, Microsoft is offering a discount – 1 USD instead of 14.99 USD – over a month of its new Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription service, which launches Xbox Live Gold (which allows an online game and launches some free titles a month) and its Game Pass service (which appears to Netflix for games) in one subscription. But there is a way to do a much better deal – and that does not seem to be a problem. You can get the Xbox Game Pass for free for up to 36 months.

According to the Microsoft FAQ, "As a privileged advantage, when you join Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to give your opinion, we apply your prepaid time on Xbox Live Gold, Xbox Game Pass or both to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, within the limit of a maximum of 36 months. "

It's essential to understand: if you have already subscribed to an Xbox Live Gold subscription, the remaining time on your Gold membership is automatically converted into GamePass Ultimate when you apply the 1 month for $ 1 Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. on your Microsoft account.

Here's what you get with Ultimate:

• More than 100 games on Xbox One, with new ones added frequently (see the full list of Xbox Game Pass titles here)
• New PC version of the Game Pass, which is currently in beta. (You simply download the Xbox Game Pass App for PC (Beta) for Windows 10 on your PC.)
• All Xbox Game Studios titles are available at no extra cost on the day of release.
• This includes Gears 5: Ultimate Edition, which will be distributed to Ultimate members 4 days prior to arrival. November.
• "Games with gold" titles on Xbox (even more free games added periodically).
• Online multiplayer support.

How to get the deal

The bulk of this information comes from this Slickdeals thread, but we spent the last few hours trying it out on two different accounts, and it works. But there seems to be so many people taking advantage of the deal that Microsoft's servers are struggling to keep up: we saw about 404 pages and we struggled to complete the second transaction.

Note that CNET may earn a share of the revenues from the sale of the services presented on this page and that your mileage may vary. This agreement is supposed to be available via E3 (which will continue until Thursday), but Microsoft could cut it or change it at any time.

With these caveats, follow these steps to maximize the transaction.

• Start with the main page of your Microsoft account.
• Go to the "Services and Subscriptions" tab at the top of the page – this will show what you are currently subscribed for (or not).
• Before you apply the one month transaction for $ 1 to your account, extend your Xbox Live Gold membership by purchasing additional months.
• You can get Live Gold for 12 months for $ 60, although some Live Gold contracts can reduce the cost to less than $ 50 for 12 months (CD Keys, Rakuten and Costco). Some people also have Microsoft Rewards, which they can convert to Live Gold months. (Get separate codes of 6 or 12 months, but opt ​​for the latter if possible.)

• You'll want to go as close to June 10, 2022 as the expiry date of your Xbox Live Gold to maximize the transaction.
• So, yes: you have already spent up to $ 180 for 3 years of using Xbox Live Gold ($ 60 x 3). But, you probably would have passed that anyway.
• You can get an extra month of Xbox Live Gold when you enable automatic renewal (recurring billing) when adding months to your account. You should have the option after entering a digital code purchased for 12 months of gold, for example.
• In your account settings, check the expiration time of your Xbox Live Gold subscription. Again, this is under the "Services and Subscriptions" tab.
• Once you have confirmed that you have extended your Xbox Live Gold membership to the desired amount, click on the link to the 1 month contract for $ 1 for Game Pass Ultimate.

• Once this The transaction is applied to your account, your Xbox Live Gold membership will be converted to Ultimate Game Pass – and Game Pass Ultimate should be available for the duration of your Live Gold membership. You will have nothing to pay before 36 months.
• After the expiry date of your Ultimate Game Pass, you will have to pay $ 14.99 per month to continue it.
• You can choose not to automatically renew your Game Pass Ultimate subscription.
• If you decide not to continue Game Pass Ultimate, you can return to subscribe only to Xbox Live Gold.

So again, you may have spent more than $ 180 plus an extra dollar. But: based on the use of Xbox Live Gold at $ 5 per month, compared to the updated version of Game Pass Ultimate which costs $ 15, your savings could reach $ 360 ($ 10 x 36 months).

Xbox servers seem to tire

Again, it worked for us, but we had problems with the second registration on Monday afternoon because of the large volume on Microsoft's servers. (After adding the Xbox Live Gold codes in a web browser, we had to buy the $ 1 Game Pass Ultimate add-on on the Xbox itself, because the browser did not send us a confirmation code ("It there is a temporary problem with the service. ").

So yes, it's a little complicated, but if you own an Xbox and already subscribe to Xbox Live Gold and you plan to continue it, it's an easy way to get Game Pass for free for some time. Of course, you must be willing to pay now to extend your Xbox Live Gold service to take advantage of it.