Turkish Lira in Free Fall - These are your options now

Have you noticed that the Turkish lira is in free fall every day because of the US conflict? The games become cheaper with every day. Problem: The gift card shops are no longer able to meet the high demand, are sold out and thus quickly get nothing back. In turn, they have the problem that the cards are traded in USD, which also means that the usually poor conversion rate for end customers comes out and the risk of the shops is very high that the rate continues to fall and you make a big loss with it.

Therefore, it is probably not a solution to pay with gift card, even if this is the supposedly safest solution. BUT: If you pre-order now by credit card and the money is only charged 10 days before the release, the price may of course have changed again. Depending on when the game releases. However, as things stand at present, it is unlikely that the conflict will soon be resolved and the currency will continue to plummet. So games are getting cheaper every day. And if it doesn't happen any more, the prices will only rise slowly and you could still cancel every game if necessary. With pre-orders you can even do this in your MS account.

Although I myself would benefit from a small commission if you buy games with gift card directly from my website, I would still advise you to buy some games with a credit card from Turkey as long as the prices are so low. Even if it doesn't give me anything. The prices are currently simply too tempting!

On our own behalf

I found some time again and could continue working at the website. A few new visible features have made it into the current version.

- Xbox Live Gold Price Comparison
- Price changes no longer indicate increases, because why should they?!
- The help page has received a badge to help most new users find their way around.
- If there are new "News", a "NEW" badge is now displayed to every user who has not yet read it. If this doesn't eat up too much performance (yes, everything is cached etc. but anyway), then I'll add similar functions for the other sites soon, e.g. if there is a new game etc.
- Some additions in the help and FAQ...
In addition there are some new admin functions for me, which make my work easier;)

Still in development (simply because of the very large time requirement) are among other things the user registration with various really cool features. But unfortunately that takes time and as a one-man project you don't always have that in abundance beside your everyday obligations. But it's coming...
Just imagine all the cool features as a registered user, ... and then some more :) 

Discord channel for chatting

Like many of you, the Disqus chat system below the posts has become very annoying to me. I am already looking for a good alternative, which I can couple later with the upcoming user registration. Until then, however, you still have to hold out a little bit.

But now we have a very nice Discord-Chat, which you can enter via almost every device and discuss there diligently.
If you'd like to drop by, you'll find the discord symbol at the bottom left of the navigation bar, which will lead you directly to the channel.

Of course you can also link the Facebook page to keep up to date with bargains and deals!

The situation with prices in Argentina remains rather unclear. Not only we Europeans are surprised about the pricing and the topic with the taxes, also in Argentina the situation is not as clear as it should be. Here in Germany, for example, an unthinkable idea. If a measure is announced here on day X, it will also be implemented by everyone immediately and without compromise.

Actually the prices should be indicated already some weeks inclusive taxes, and/or somehow the taxes must be accounted for. However, this is not yet the case and there is a lot of contradictory information on when, if and how this will happen. Someone from Argentina said yesterday that the "sales tax" is only added for Argentinean credit cards or payments with them. But why should that be? In every other country with taxes (similar to VAT) the prices are also identical for everything and everyone. That would even be discriminatory (in a positive case for us)...

However, since Microsoft itself may not be able to keep track of the situation and purchases from us continue to be settled without taxes (whether by credit card or gift card), something else has to happen. I already noticed on June 14th that Anthem made a price leap upwards and so did Battlefield V and Madden 19 yesterday (each version of any game). The prices for both games in the Standard Edition were previously 949 ARS and were then raised to 1599 ARS each. A hefty price increase of approx. 59%!

If this continues in the next few weeks with other games, Argentina will soon be of no real interest to us and other countries (possibly with gift cards) will regain the first position in the prize table. Maybe another one with a good gift card supply?! It seems as if we are "destroying" the countries one by one, because it was the same with South Africa and Russia before. The prices were very low for a while and were then steadily increased. Meanwhile, these countries are settling somewhere in midfield.

By the way: Prices are usually set by the publishers, i.e. Microsoft itself is not responsible for price increases. I could imagine, however, that there are reference tables to suggest prices in country X that roughly match economic performance and average income.

And also interesting: Sony's digital PS4 games in Argentina are billed in US dollars right from the start and not in Argentinian pesos as Microsoft does. As a result, the PS4 games have always been much more expensive in Argentina. I.e. a price increase of the Xbox games is probably bearable, because the Argentines are already used to the prices of Sony's PS4.

Let's just see how the whole price situation will change in the next few weeks. Maybe more games will be drastically increased in price in the future, because the publisher still has to pay taxes on sales afterwards? It is possible.

Ultimate Game Sale 2018 starts this thursday

UPDATE: The sale has been started!

You can find all offers from the sale here: https://www.xbox-now.com/sale-deal-list

As expected during the summer days the annual Ultimate Game Sale starts this thursday and will run until July 30th. Microsoft has loads of discounted games and downloadable content for us with up to 65% off! (Usually it's even more sometimes). Xbox-Now should have all the deals available/displayed earlier than the official start date. Expect the deals to bw listed from today 3pm (ET), like old sales in the past did.
Better increase your prepaid gift card amount, grab some nice VPN offer (like the very nice ibVPN deal yesterday) or do whatever is necessary to be prepared for over 500+ deals!

Besides the discounted games, you will find loads of discounted downloadable content. These are not added/listed/updated automatically, you will have to query the price-update by yourself. I will try to supply a list of all discounted DLCs for you, that you are able to decide if you're interested and do the necessary steps to get the updated price here at Xbox-Now!

You should hurry and restock the prepaid gift cards for e.g. Turkey and other "interesting" countries as soon as you can. As soon as the sale has started, the demand will be very high and it could be out of stock very fast. (Turkey at MTCGame) 

As soon as the sale has started (in)officially (usually this evening) you will get an update on it here or on Facebook etc.

The very popular VPN services from ibVPN are yet again available with 78% off! You can actually get the Ultimate Edition with a 2yrs license for just 58 USD. Thats under 2.50 USD per month! The Ultimate Edition offers more than 180 servers in about 57 countries all over the world. A complete list of all locations can be found on the ibVPN website. Be sure that this offer can get you all upcoming games with nices prices for the next two years.

I am using the Ultimate Edition myself and I can only recommend it. Always were able to purchase directly in Argentina or others. Also was able to redeem a gift code on my european account which was purchased in Egypt. (Yes, I was able to find anyone who got me some cheap Microsoft exclusives! :))

But there is one thing to be said: This offer is only valid if you buy a 2 year license for 58 USD. But because you would be able to share the account with other people (5 sim connections possible), it's just a small amount everyone has to pay.

Here you can find the ibVPN Ultimate offer

If you are not sure yet, you can try the 24 hour trial.

Update: You cannot extend your subscription from a different country. This will only work if you don't have gold at the moment!

At the end of the weekend we get a good bargain served at cdkeys. Loyal Xbox-Now users have probably already taken part in one of the last ibVPN deals and subscribed to a good VPN service in the long run. Now you can not only make good game deals with it, but also extend your Xbox Live.

For Brazil the Gold Codes are quite cheap and so in combination with a cdkeys voucher of 5% and a Brazil VPN you pay only 26$ for another 12 months of Xbox Live Gold. A must just for the four free games per month, if you haven't had gold yet. All others extend early ;)

12 Months Xbox Live Gold für 25,45 USD (use 5% voucher) (ATTENTION: Brazil VPN is absolutely required!)

The cdkeys voucher can be generated here. It can be used twice per account. To use it successfully, you must be logged in to cdkeys. A valid e-mail address does not have to be entered.