Over the years I’ve played a number of games starting ones on 8-bit consoles (NES clones), much more advanced Sega Mega Drive (16-bit) and, skipping first generation Sony PlayStation, moved to PC gaming. With whole industry passionately waiting for new Xbox One X to be released in the end of 2017 I decided to give myself a treat and get this powerful console. While more detailed review is planned later, today I’ll describe how to get Xbox Live Gold subscription in unsupported country.
Xbox Live Gold which is paid subscription service allows members to play online, use extra benefits provided as coupon codes in game boxes and receive additional content like free games and other stuff. E. g. this month Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate is available as a free download – quite awesome indeed.
Unfortunately geo-blocking is still happening – I live in Lithuania which despite of being European Union member since 2004 is still unsupported in Microsoft Shop to buy Live Gold subscription. User support was friendly but couldn’t help except stating that they “constantly work to add more countries to Xbox Live Gold”. Well, how hard can it be?
Closest country that is suppotred was Poland but switching region to this neighbouring country I’ve got all news and hints in Polish so that was inconvenient. To have console in English I had to switch to US or UK was another option. Then however trying to buy Xbox Live Gold subscription I was asked for US address. Friends told me that credit card issued in US is not mandatory but the physical address is a must. Well, I could switch to UK and ask some of my friends who emigrated to UK some time ago but that looked as an inconvenient as well.
Searching forums for solution brought me to eBay where you can easily buy coupons (or the key codes printed on them) of various lengths ranging from several days to months of subscription. So I picked a seller with few hundred good feedback and almost instantly got a link to download a coupon. It looked like a scanned version of paper sheet and together with three months subscription code carried a text saying it was “Made in Singapore”. Well, let’s see if it works.
Couple attempts to redeem it at Microsoft’s page didn’t work out – every time I’ve got “Something went wrong” error despite the code being correctly identified as “Prepaid 3M Xbox LIVE Gold” coupon. I was already disappointed and asked seller for a refund as the coupon didn’t work but luckily tried one more way – activated code from within console.
In Xbox console I pressed Home button, scrolled to Microsoft Store and found Redeem a Code button. Entered the code in input box and… successfully activated! Great success.
Will update information when I reach a point of renewing subscription but for now it seems the solution works smooth.
With valid Xbox Live Gold subscription I managed to activate a bunch of coupons I had in game boxes – Prestige Pack for Assetto Corsa, Hyundai R5 rally car for DiRT4, Hitman Requem Pack and few more.
In case you’d like to find me on Xbox community my gamer tag is gytisrepecka 🙂 And don’t forget to subscribe my YouTube channel for gaming videos (currently several Need for Speed Payback videos posted there) and my Instagram account for gaming hardware photos!
Can you sign in Xbox live? I can’t since today. I’m from Ukraine.
It works – so far no login problems. Which region have you selected for your Xbox?
Sveikas, galvoju nusipirkti xbox live key europe žaidimo koda tik nežinau ar jis veiktų jei pakeisčiau kompiuterio xbox programėlėje savo paskyros šalį kurioje jis veiktų?
Do you get all the benefits that live gold offers?
Yes – I get monthly games (however on most Xbox360 titles I get “Offer is not available for your region” error), multiplayer works and so on.
In which country are you?
So if i buy a code say its was made for Singapore. Do i need to set my console location to Singapore for it to reedem xbox live gold?..Also what seller on ebay do you use for buying your codes?
I think if coupon explicitly says it is inteded for particular country, you need to comply.
My case shows that coupon issued for US worked on Xbox One X with UK set as region, so it might be not so strict in checking. Just make sure to redeem coupon code from your Xbox console, not the website!
I’ve bought from g2a-games on eBay.
Labas Gytis,
Gyvenau Olandijoje ir ten gyvendamas įsigijau xbox one s. Grįžau į Lietuvą, xbox nustatymuose regiono nekeičiau(iki dabar regionas yra Netherlands) ir pirkau redeem kodus game pass’ui(kodai buvo global regiono). Viskas veikė iki šios dienos, bet dabar vedant kodą gaunu pranešimą, kad su kodu kažkas negerai ir turėčiau mėginti aktyvinti kodą kitame puslapyje arba klausti instrukcijos pas pardavėją. Mėginau kodą aktyvuoti tiek per patį xbox, tiek prisijunges į savo microsoft profilį per kompiuterį, bet vis gaunu tą patį pranešimą. Tad man dabar reiktų mėginti keisti regioną į UK? O gal yra kitų metodų apeiti šią klaidą?
Gyti, vadinasi užtenka nustatyti regioną į UK, suvesti UK adresą ir visomis (be tai šaliai skirtų) naudomis galima pasinaudoti? Kalbu apie Game pass, Xbox Live, kitus game codes, prie kurių nėra prirašyta, kad jie skirti konkrečiam regionui.
Nustačius regioną į UK ir įvedus UK adresą savo paskyrai, turėtų būti pasiekiami visi UK rinkai skirti privalumai. Jeigu konkretus žaidimas skirtas US rinkai, jo žaisti su UK regionu nepavyks. Norėjau įsigyti kelis skraidymo simuliatorius, bet to padaryti nepavyko būtent dėl šios priežasties – buvo rodoma klaida, kad esą nepavyko atlikti mokėjimo.
Kol kas nebandžiau jungti Xbox prie interneto per VPN, tačiau turiu pagrindo manyti, kad IP adresas netikrinamas, o atsižvelgiama į konsolėje nustatytą regioną. Tačiau šią prielaidą dar reikia patikrinti.
Jeigu kuponui (Live Gold ar Game Pass) arba žaidimo priedams (DLC) nėra nurodytas konkretus regionas, turint UK nustatytą konsolėje, pasinaudoti pavyks, tačiau kaip jau rašiau, kuponą reikia redeem’inti per konsolę, o ne per Microsoft svetainę.
Does is still not work after 3rd of December, i.e. after geoblocking was forbidden in EU?
During December 2018 geoblocking was definitely in effect.
Is it already so geoblocking is already forbidden in EU?
One more update – in case you set country to United Kingdom, you will need to provide UK postal address for full-featured purchases on Microsoft store through Xbox One.
On some forums I’ve found people to be very creative – to provide real address they use postal address of their real country’s embassy in UK address 🙂
Thanks a lot for ideas! Needed this very much for buying EA access subscription
Sveiki,pas mane xbox 360 konsolėje yra nustatytas regionas UK bandžiau vesti kodą visais būdais ir per visur,bet vistiek neveikia,kodų bandžiau įvairių ir vistiek nieko gal galite padėti?
Labas, deja, neturiu Xbox 360, tai negaliu pakomentuoti.
Hello, i live in Australia, I want to purchase a xbox one for a friend in Vietnam (xbox live unsupported)
Can i send a Australia console and purchase Australia xbox live credit
Will the xbox need to stay on Australia region ?
There is no geographic location (based on user IP) blocking applied which means if you buy a console in Australia, there should be no problems using it anywhere else.
Regarding Xbox Live credits, some of them are tied to country. So if you buy Australian credit, it can only be used on account that has Australia set. That means console should be set to Australia region, user (Xbox/Microsoft account holder) should have valid Australian address set.
I assume you could try such setup: buy console and credit in Australia, send them over to your friend in Vietnam and ask him/her to use your (Australian) postal address and Australia region on that console. With valid Australian postal address Xbox Live credit should be available to redeem.
Sveikas, tai iš esmės neliko jokių galimybių pirkti online tiesiogiai per microsoft store, vienintelis variantas nusipirkti tik iš perpardavinėtojų, atsižvelgiant į tai, kokiame regione prekę galėsi aktyvuoti? 🙁
Tiesą pasakius, nebandžiau pirkti Live Gold narystės su įvestu UK adresu – iki šiol naudodavau kuponus ir jų redeem’inimo galimybę.
Bet reikėtų pabandyti – jei transakcija nepavyks, pinigų nenurašys.
2020 bet vis dar nelaiko normalia šalimi Lietuvos Microsoft’as 🙁