March 6 Visa and MasterCard payment systems announced that foreign payments in Russia will be suspended. Prior to this, Microsoft told to suspend all new sales of services and products, including everything related to Xbox consoles. How to buy games now?
Unlike PC with its Steam and Epic Games Store, consoles have one distinct advantage – almost all games come out on discs. So gamers can just go to a consumer electronics retailer that sells video games and get what they want. Updates are still being downloaded, and there are no prerequisites for the fact that the Internet or services in Russia will be completely blocked.
Nevertheless, new releases should not be expected on the shelves in the coming months. “Nintendo Russia”, for example, already announced See this earlier for Kirby and the Forgotten Lands and Chocobo GP. History will surely repeat itself with the rest of the March premieres, including Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands and Crusader Kings III: Console Edition.
“Video game no”
The only disadvantage of this method is the cost of games. Now it is growing rapidly. If at the beginning of this month the console Elden Ring cost 4999 rubles, now stores ask 5999 for it, and somewhere more expensive – up to 6999 rubles. However, it is not a fact that the rise in price will affect older games that sold now at a price of 1499 to 4490 rubles, or even cheaper.
Finally, do not forget regarding the secondary market. There are thousands of advertisements for the sale of games on Avito.
If we talk regarding digital games, then direct purchase of them in the Microsoft Store will soon be blocked due to Visa and MasterCard restrictions. In addition, prices in the official Russian digital store Microsoft already in dollarsso it is especially expensive to buy games in it now: for a release worth $59.99, you will have to pay almost 7.5 thousand rubles at the current exchange rate.
What to do? There are several ways to buy digital Xbox games in Russia that have worked and will continue to work.
The first one is acquisition of codes for activation on third-party sites. For example, on Plati.ru, which is familiar to many, Elden Ring is sold for 3,755 rubles. Be careful – check the seller’s rating and the number of positive reviews, and carefully read the description of the offer. In some cases, you will need to use a VPN when redeeming the code.
Second – opportunity to buy an account Xbox with games on it. This is much cheaper than buying games – such an account can cost several hundred rubles. But the method has many drawbacks: you need to store an account on your console; to run, you must have an Internet connection (and a connection to Microsoft servers); the account may be blocked or the games from it may be revoked.
But games on Xbox in Russia you can buy another profitable and fairly safe way – in sections of the digital store in other countries, in particular Argentina, Brazil and Turkey. Longtime fans of the platform are well aware of this method and actively use it. In this case, the activation of the game takes place on your account, and it can cost from several hundred rubles – sometimes cheaper than on Steam with a regional price. You can check the cost of the game in different regions on sites such as Xbox Store Checker. Don’t forget to move the slider to “All Regions” so you can see deals in Argentina and Turkey.
Directly, unfortunately, it was impossible to buy a game in a foreign region with your Russian bank card or PayPal before, but residents of Ukraine, Kazakhstan and other countries where there is no official Microsoft Store yet came to the rescue – they can purchase games in any region. Statistics suggest that it is most profitable to do this in Argentina, Brazil or Turkey. Therefore, simply ask your friend from neighboring countries to purchase the game for you in one of the cheap regions through the gift function. If he specifies your email, then you will receive a code to activate the game. To use it, you will have to find a VPN with a server in the corresponding country. For example, Hola VPN or Urban VPN.
In addition, on various sites, as well as thematic forums and communities, there are intermediary sellers who will help you purchase the game in a foreign region. For this they take a commission of 100-250 rubles.
Image Source: Microsoft
Activating or buying games directly on your account can be reduced in price by half, if you use the so-called “two”. This is the mutual activation of a home console with a friend or family member, which allows you to access each other’s libraries, and therefore buy digital games in a bargain. This should not be done with people you don’t know well, because you need to give full access to your account for the feature to work. However, on thematic forums and in communities, there are entire systems for combining people into “twos” with strict moderation.
It is noteworthy that it is often impossible to change a partner in a “two” – Microsoft limited activation to three times a year. To access another account’s game library, you need to:
- Log in to the account of another user with whom you will organize a “deuce”.
- Go to Settings on your Xbox console.
- In the “General” section, go to the “Personalization” menu.
- In the “My home Xbox console” menu, check the “Make this Xbox home console” box.
The other user must do the same. After that, you do not need to log into each other’s accounts, and you can play both single and network projects at the same time.
There are other variations of the “two”. Read more regarding them on the Xbox forums and communities. But do not forget regarding one more feature of the platform, in which you can, in principle, not buy games …
Xbox Game Pass. The official Microsoft subscription service provides access to hundreds of games (438 as of March 6, 2022) from a mass of publishers. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate includes the EA Play Library and an Xbox Live Gold subscription that provides access to online features, additional discounts in the Microsoft Store, and four free games per month (access to them while the subscription is active).
It is preferable to buy Xbox Live Gold for one simple reason – Microsoft provides the ability to convert Xbox Live Gold to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate with a 1 to 1 ratio, provided that you do not have active subscriptions. To do this, it is enough, for example, to purchase a code for 12 months of Xbox Live Gold and 1 month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and then activate them in order (first “Gold”). Thus, you will have 13 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate at a price less than the cost of one game – regarding 3500-4000 rubles.
If your account is new or your subscription is less than 14 days old, you can use third-party sellers to activate your annual Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription at an even lower price. On Plati.ru, for example, it will cost you 2399-2999 rubles. Again, read the description carefully as sellers offer different terms of service. Some of them provide an activation code, others activate the subscription themselves from your account.
That’s all. Share your experience of bypassing blocking and buying games on Xbox consoles in the comments.
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