The EA Play Game Pass Trick Just Got Even Better — Here’s How to Score 10 Months of Ultimate for £77

Alright, listen up — because if you’ve ever let a Game Pass subscription lapse and been dreading the thought of rejoining at full price, this is exactly the kind of deal that’ll make you feel like you outsmarted a billion-dollar corporation. And honestly? You kind of do.

Xbox’s decision to slash Game Pass Ultimate down to £16.99 a month in the UK was already a massive win after the brutal price hikes of last year. But sharp-eyed deal hunters have quickly figured out that the new, lower pricing makes the old EA Play conversion loophole way more attractive than it ever was before. We’re talking roughly 10 months of Game Pass Ultimate for £76.96 — against the £169.90 you’d pay just subscribing month-to-month. That’s over £92 back in your pocket.

Here’s everything you need to know.

First, What Is the EA Play Trick?

This isn’t a hack. There’s no grey area here — it’s an official Microsoft conversion mechanic that’s been part of the system for years. The short version: EA Play is a separate subscription service, but Microsoft allows you to stack EA Play time on your account and then convert it into Game Pass Ultimate time when you trigger an upgrade. The conversion rate is 3:1, meaning 36 months of EA Play converts to roughly 9 months of Game Pass Ultimate automatically once you buy even a single month of Ultimate.

Deal hunters have been running this trick on and off for ages, but it’s had varying levels of value depending on EA Play pricing and whatever Game Pass was charging at the time. Right now, in April 2026, the math lines up about as well as it ever has.

The One Thing That Can Kill This Deal Before You Start

Before you buy a single thing, check your account status. This only works if your Xbox Game Pass subscription is fully expired — completely inactive. It doesn’t matter if you’re on Core, PC Game Pass, Premium, or Ultimate. If any version of Game Pass is still active on your account, the conversion rates either don’t apply or they become significantly worse.

So if you’re currently subscribed, wait it out until you hit the “Free” or “Silver” status on your account. Then proceed. Do not skip this step.

Step-by-Step: How to Get 10 Months of Game Pass Ultimate for £76.96

Step 1 — Buy three 12-month EA Play gift cards at £19.99 each.

That’s £59.97 total. Amazon carries these, but there’s an important detail: Amazon limits EA Play gift card purchases to one per order to cut down on bulk buying. You’ll need to make three separate transactions. Annoying? Slightly. Worth it for the savings? Absolutely.

Step 2 — Redeem all three codes on your Microsoft account.

Head to your Microsoft account redemption page and enter all three codes. You should now have 36 months of EA Play banked on your account. Don’t accept any bonus months if offered — Microsoft caps subscription stacking at 36 months total, and bonus time counts toward that ceiling.

Step 3 — Buy one month of Game Pass Ultimate at £16.99.

This is the trigger. Head to the Xbox store and purchase a single month of Ultimate at the current price. When you do this, Microsoft’s system will automatically ask if you want to convert your existing EA Play time into Game Pass Ultimate time.

Step 4 — Confirm the conversion.

Accept it. Your 36 months of EA Play will convert to approximately 9 months of Game Pass Ultimate at the 3:1 ratio. Stack that on top of the one month you just bought and you’re sitting at roughly 10 months of Game Pass Ultimate for a total outlay of £76.96.

That’s an effective monthly cost of about £7.69. For context, the standard rate right now is £16.99. You’re getting it for less than half price.

Is This Legit? Can You Get Banned for This?

One hundred percent legit. Microsoft designed this conversion system themselves — it’s documented on Xbox Support. You’re not exploiting a bug, you’re not using modified accounts, you’re not doing anything that violates terms of service. The reason it feels like a loophole is that Microsoft clearly didn’t engineer it with this level of stacking in mind, but using the system as it’s built is totally within bounds. No bans, no account flags, no funny business.

Why the Price Drop Makes This So Much Better Right Now

Before the recent Game Pass price cut, this trick still worked — but the math was less compelling because EA Play gift cards cost more relative to what you were converting them into. With Ultimate now sitting at £16.99 a month (down from £22.99 after the October 2025 price hike that drove a ton of people away), the gap between the loophole cost and the regular cost is wider than it’s been in a long time.

And if you’ve been staying away from Game Pass since those hikes — which, same — now is actually a decent time to come back. The lineup coming to the service this year includes Forza Horizon 6, the Fable reboot, Halo: Campaign Evolved, and Gears of War: E-Day, all of which are confirmed to land in Ultimate on day one. The catch with the new pricing structure is that Call of Duty games no longer come to Game Pass at launch — future titles will show up about a year after release. If CoD isn’t your primary reason for subscribing, that trade-off probably doesn’t bother you much.

And speaking of things happening at Xbox right now — it’s been a busy week. New CEO Asha Sharma is already making waves, refusing to rule out the return of exclusive games and promising a more console-focused future. There’s also a leaked Game Pass Starter Edition tier tied to Discord Nitro that could make Game Pass even more accessible at the entry level. And on the hardware side, the latest April 2026 Xbox update added the ability to disable Quick Resume on a per-game basis — a small but genuinely appreciated QoL change for people who’ve had issues with it.

Quick Summary — The Numbers

One last reminder — expired subscription only. If you’re still active on any Game Pass tier, wait it out before you start. The whole trick falls apart if the account isn’t fully lapsed.

Good luck, and enjoy the sub.