That’s like 6 months, so I’m less surprised that you’d have received one, honestly. At least it’s a good reminder to either let your membership lapse, or start the hunt for good deals. My last actual payment directly to MS for Game Pass was in 2019, and it was one of those $1 deals. I’ve regularly used points or discounted cards from elsewhere to pay for it.


Yes, very shitty indeed! What has this world come to?

Can you die in Still Wakes the Deep?

Copying/pasting from ResetEra because I’m lazy:

• Soon, Xbox Game Pass for Console will be shuttered for new users only.
• Users currently on Xbox Game Pass for Console will be allowed to maintain their subscription, as well as day one games, and the hundreds of titles in the back catalogue.
• New users on Xbox Game Pass in the near future will be greeted by a new Xbox Game Pass "Standard." This is more like EA Access, which includes Xbox's back catalogue, and doesn't include day one games. This will be priced at $14.99 per month, and will also include Xbox Live Gold for multiplayer (now known as Game Pass Core, confusingly). It doesn't include Xbox Cloud gaming. Game Pass Standard is supposedly launching in September.
• From September 12, 2024, Microsoft will only allow users to stack Xbox Game Pass for Console users for up to 13 months, using pre-paid cards and the like, which will continue to function. If you have more than 13 months stacked already, you won't be impacted.
• Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will not be changed, but it will get a price increase. It will still include PC Game Pass, day one games, and hundreds of back catalogue titles, as well as cloud gaming. But, it is getting a price increase. The new price will be $19.99 per month.
• PC Game Pass is also getting a price increase, from $9.99 per month to $11.99.
• PC Game Pass will also continue to get day one games.
• Xbox Game Pass Core (Xbox Live Gold multiplayer) gets an annual price increase to $74.99 from $59.99, but it will remain $9.99 per month.
• The price increases are global.
• For users with recurring billing, the new prices will take effect on September 12, 2024, giving you time to cancel if you don't fancy it.
• Microsoft now has a support page up dedicated to these changes over here.

Yuck. Well gonna stock up on 3 mo cards now...

Annnnnnd.....Done!



Bought 3 more 3 Mo subscriptions. That's as good as I'm gonna get.

Best deal I found was $27.89 for 3 mo of Game Pass Ultimate at CDKeys. That's now a 50% savings. Stock up, if able.

I’m waiting to see how much this affects Bing Rewards, since I’ve been getting enough points every month to keep the free subscription train rolling.

I always forget that you can do that.

I am good into 2025. I will need to buy a bunch of codes to get me to 2026.

I have 30 months. I'll leave it like that for now. Unredeemed 10x 3-months and doesn't expire.

What card do you use? My bank blocked CDKEYS (Chase Visa) it's tied to my PayPal and even through them it still won't go through. Wondering if I should call the bank to see if they can let the transaction go through?

I used PayPal with a Chase Visa. Call your card company.

Why not just redeem them? There's no telling if they'll ever just prorate these cards if they increase the price a certain amount, and you can currently stack more I think?

Also cdkeys have already upped their prices (I think they do it based on demand which is surely up now). Right now the 12 month is a better deal. But even at that "deal" i think I might be out

Because there's nothing I want to play there.

Predictably:

The auto-redeem option shows 12,000 points, which is the same as the non-discounted price. So not too bad, if that holds!

Not sure why they are bothering with the 12000 auto redeem when they apparently are not allowing auto redeem for subscriptions:



If it is just for the discounted ones that are going away, then their wording sucks.

I switched to the 12k auto redeem, and no message yet.

This looks to be the best deal for GPU codes now. For Prime members.

It’s funny GPU just raised its price. I just locked in 3 years like last week.

Yeah, I went back down to Core. Ultimate is not worth $20 a month for me.

This is an interesting legal twist :

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I'm not sure what to think about that. I know the FTC did not like a lot of MS's actions over the last couple years, and apparently still doesn't like them. Of course I don't like product degradation or increased prices either, but, well, it's not just MS doing it. Where was the FTC when Netflix jacked up their prices and put the hammer down on password sharing? That's pretty much what MS is doing, and NF didn't even do it post-merger. I just got an email that Peacock is going up 17% to 33%. I know there are some differences, but a lot more similarities. Anyway, never a bad idea to stock up on your sub while we can, especially while discount subs are still available.
I think I've currently got about a year on my sub, I need to add some codes. I'm not taking advantage of it as much as I used to, it's gotten sort of overwhelming and I am playing games I bought as well, but I'll probably still extend it some more.

The FTC complaint isn't just about there being a price increase, but about MS specifically going back to a promise it made prior to the merger with Activision.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/re...53.121.0_1.pdf
Basically, by removing day one releases from the Standard tier and moving them to the Ultimate Tier, as well as increasing the price, is a de facto price increase for the service if the consumers want to access CoD on the day of release, going counter to what MS promised in order to get the Activision merger approved. It's generally a no-no to lie to the government and the courts.

Modern Warfare III coming to Game Pass in just 3 days!

CD Keys has dropped their prices now. $10.39 for 1 month, $29.89 for 3 month passes for those still stockpiling before the September lockdown.

Avowed is getting delayed to 2025 so they can space out the free games a little more.

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