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Players using this workaround typically buy Xbox Gold months through third-party retailers (1 year is about $60 or less) and then buy an additional month of Ultimate to convert the entire duration of both subscriptions to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. This secret maneuver allows them — or used to allow them — to get a longer period of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate at a drastically reduced price than the original $16.99 per month. AndMicrosoftis basically addressing this practice through a couple of new conversion decisions.
According to Microsoft’ssupportpage, any remaining active periods of Xbox Gold and PC Game Pass will be converted at a 3:2 ratio (original amount vs. new amount) when players decide to upgrade them to the Ultimate tier, while Xbox Game Pass will be converted to Ultimate at a 4:3 ratio, and EA Play durations will be converted at a 3:1 ratio.
This means that you will need to purchase at least 18 months of Gold to get 12 months of Ultimate. And if you already have an active Ultimate subscription, that doesn’t mean you’re exempt from the new nerf (and it doesn’t mean you can get sneaky and buy cheap Gold codes instead of the more expensive Ultimate codes to extend the duration).
Microsoft’s support page has a detailed list of all subscription time amounts (Gold, Game Pass for PC, and EA Play) and how much they amount to when their codes are redeemed in an account with an active Ultimate subscription. The math is quite different here, as we can see that 1 month of Gold converts to 20 days of Ultimate (a 3:1 ratio). There are also 50 days of Ultimate for 3 months of Gold, and 81 days for 6 months of Gold, which is about a 44% ratio.
So it seems that these are deliberate amounts calculated to prevent abuse of subscription codes, especially those obtained through third-party retailers. As it stands, subscribing through the Gold conversion is still cheaper than the annual Ultimate subscription, as it will require you to pay around $120 compared to $200 for a year of Ultimate monthly payments. But it’s still a pretty big hit for those looking for cheaper ways to enjoy Microsoft’s games.
