Nice. That tops me off for a while.

Same deal is now $6.79. Excellent time to top up.

https://www.cdkeys.com/xbox-live/mem...ign=Slickdeals

I just did the conversion deal. My ultimate ran out this past week. Got 8 of the cheap 3 month live codes. Entered them one by one, adding autopay, then disabling each time to get the 1 extra free month. After cost of codes plus conversion, I got just under 3 years of ultimate for like $60. I love this loophole.

I bought 4 at $6.79 before they raised it to $8.59. When I go to the page it shows the old price then immediately changes to the new one. Have 200 days to keep checking for the price to go down again.

I did not know about the free month trick darn it!

The free month thing seems to be hit or miss. I definitely have recurring billing OFF, but I haven't received the free month offer in the last 2 years or so, despite redeeming a few codes along the way.

Also, for what it's worth, if you're willing to do the daily MS Rewards grind (Bing Searches, Xbox Quests, Trivia, etc.), you can rack up enough points to get free 3-month codes. There are even YouTube channels dedicated to showing you how to get the more complicated Xbox Quests done as quickly as possible. All those points add up and the longer your streak is, the more points you'll earn. I was going strong with that for awhile but fell off the wagon.

Yeah I'd rather pay real money than do daily homework, or use a Bing search engine.

Yeah, I'll hit the Rewards tile on the Xbox and check out the games that give you points for checking out, and see if I'm likely to do the Weekly. But I don't work too hard at it. I've got 50,000 points, I should probably use some
I bought another 2 3-month at that price, extended another ~100 days. Thanks!
I'm curious as to how CDKeys and other places are able to get and sell these at these prices. I read an article a while ago about an MS employee who was basically embezzling Live and points cards due to a loophole in his job and selling them for tons of money. I hope this isn't something like that

Come on now! Bing is somewhat sufficient 50% of the time.

I tried the free month trick with the last code and I didn't get offered a month, so now I feel better There's also machinations you can do to get 3 years for $80 or so in that Slickdeals thread. But without doing anything I'm getting it for $4.07 a month, which is fine for me. Even if they raised it to $10, which it seems at any time you can grab codes for $10 or less, that's $6 a month.

So this is interesting:

https://screenrant.com/xbox-game-pas...oft-crackdown/

"Microsoft has canceled some Xbox Game Pass subscriptions following a crackdown on fraudulent resellers trying to access Game Pass Ultimate."

"Earlier this month, Microsoft announced Xbox has uncovered a fraudulent group of resellers who have been stacking multiple instances of Xbox Game Pass’s standard introductory subscription offer and converting them to the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate tier - which gives members access to additional features and services like EA Play, and the aforementioned Xbox Cloud Gaming, for a slightly higher monthly cost. As a reaction to this wave of fraud, Microsoft has decided to shut down all related Xbox Game Pass subscriptions after notifying the users they were assigned to. All account data and game history connected to these subscriptions have been preserved, and impacted users can resubscribe by signing up on the official Xbox Game Pass website or verified third-party sellers."

I'm not exactly sure what that means or why it's talking about resellers who are converting from GP to GPU....or why that's even considered fraud, because MS does have a conversion policy/process.

Oh, I see - reading the MS knowledgebase article helps a little:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...vseeedzneqf000

"Xbox has identified a fraudulent group of resellers who were stacking multiple instances of the PC introductory offer and converting it to Game Pass Ultimate. To resolve this issue, we have notified the impacted users individually prior to having their fraudulently acquired subscriptions cancelled.Why are you canceling these Xbox Game Pass subscriptions?

We’ve found a select number of memberships that were acquired through sources that are in violation of the Microsoft Services Agreement. Subscriptions must be purchased directly from Microsoft digital store or via verified third-party retailers."

Still not clear if the resellers are using the converted GPU themselves, or reselling - the implication is using it themselves.

I had years of Hulu paid subscription canceled after I bought a bunch of discounted codes off ebay. It really sucked.

From what I read, that situation where they cancelled gamepass was extremely rare. People who do this currently conversion trick have nothing to worry about.

Yeah, I lost a Windows OEM key that way as well.

There are so many key resellers now it’s hard to keep track of what’s legit. A lot of those streaming codes come off of shared accounts.

Far Cry 5 is up now on Game Pass.

I bought 4 and 5 for some reason. I tried playing 4 and just couldn’t get into it, and I loved 3.

4 was the worst of the series, IMO. Part 3 being so great just made 4 look worse.

I think I’d rank them:

3
1
5
6
2
4

Damn, I'd never played a FC game and now I wish it wasn't a video game because I want to read that book, what an awesome and interesting story!

My first Far Cry game was 4 and I loved it. 5 was a step down from that. I have 6 in the pile, just haven't gotten to it yet.

Okay you probably think the new game Power Wash Simulator is just some jokey shovel-ware. But don’t be fooled. It might just be the greatest gaming experience of all time. And if not, it’s still worth checking out.

Lol. I saw you playing it the other day.

Eh. I tried it. I have no patience for games like this. I wouldn't spend 20mins cleaning my own car, why would I do the same for a virtual one?

Lol yeah me too.
I did the first assignment and got maybe 30% done with the second assignment (which seemed like a huge jump up in requirements) and realized that while it wasn't un-fun, it wasn't 'fun' (for me) and quit. I've never really been into the 'real-life-sim' games, other than a play or two of Civilization.
I'm glad it's there, I'm glad people are finding relaxation in it, but it's not for me.

I started Solasta - turn based RPG loosely based on D&D 5.1 ruleset, I think - the other day. Speaking of patience - wow, this one has a learning curve. I'm familiar in theory with the ruleset but even so it takes a decent time commitment to get started (if you create your own characters, which I did). But it's fun so far. I'm sure I'm not playing to its full effect (I finished a battle where every combatant had disadvantage most of the time, then I realized the battle map was full of torches I could have lit).

I’ve been playing Power Wash. The longer jobs can get tedious so I’ve been breaking those up. Not a bad thing to clean for 15 minutes then go back to work.

I warned you. It is so addictive.

It’s pretty satisfying to get the little ding when you finish a segment.