Console Stuck in Free Trial (please someone help)

I’ve never posted on any forum before and this is literally my last resort because I’m about to lose my dang mind. Sorry that this is going to be so long, but I can’t explain it any faster without sacrificing important details.

Here’s the deal. I bought the physical disc for Overwatch: Origins Edition on Xbox One back in October. Then, in January, my Xbox One broke, which led to an absolutely horrendous series of events which ended in me replacing it with an Xbox One S two weeks ago, the Friday that the free weekend started. Thus began my second descent into madness!!

I began reinstalling the game from the disc on Friday night. It continuously had problems installing and would regularly stop for absolutely no reason. My wifi connection was fine, the disc was clean, the Xbox was cooled, there was no reason for it to screw up as much as it did. I had to keep manually starting the installation process every few seconds/minutes, and because this was going to be a 21GB installation, I hated the idea that I’d have to keep doing this for the next 12 hours. After about 2 hours of this, it suddenly quit being a giant pain in the butt and kept installing like normal. I allowed it to install, then on Saturday I turned my console on to play the game with a friend. However, when I opened the game, it thanked me for downloading the free trial, then on the main screen it asked if I wanted to purchase the game and wouldn’t allow me to play competitive. But I was still logged in to my lvl 160 account, and I just wanted to play arcade stuff, so I didn’t really care. The next time I turned on the console, it didn’t act as if I was in the free trial, so I played competitive and everything went on as normal.
Then came Hell!!!

The free weekend ended, and I had been playing a different disc, so I turned the console on and switched out the disc for Overwatch. My Xbox didn’t immediately open the game like it should’ve, but I didn’t care or really notice, so I launched the game. I was met with a message thanking me for playing the free weekend and asking me to buy overwatch now that the trial was over. I closed the message, quit the game, and tried to relaunch it, but I got the same message. It wouldn’t allow me to open the game from this point. I attempted to uninstall the game and reinstall, thinking that maybe that would reset the idea of the free weekend, but to no avail as I received the same message.

I contacted Blizzard support - no help there, as they thought it was a Microsoft problem. Sounds about right, so I contacted Microsoft support today. I was helped by a wonderful lady who asked me to do several things, including unplugging my console, clearing the MAC address, and clearing my local saved games. The game opened as it should and I was able to play for about an hour, but I kept getting kicked out due to ‘server issues’. No prob, I figured it must be busy since it was midday on the first weekend since the free trial, probably lots of new players wanting access. Closed the game, turned off my xbox, went about my day. Tried to play the game just now, and it thanked me for playing the free weekend and asked me to buy Overwatch, not allowing me into the game I spent $60 on six months ago.

I’m literally at my wits end. I love this game. I love playing it with my friend, I love the people I meet, and I love all the silly little emotes and voice lines and skins I’ve acquired in my six months of playing. But I’m about two seconds from snapping my disc in half and never mentioning the game ever again, because I’ve just about had it with this bull. I just want to play the game I spent $60 on. No, I don’t want to buy the discounted version for $30, because I already BOUGHT the game. I shouldn’t have to buy it AGAIN just to play the game!!

I’m sorry this was so long, truly I do. It’s been a long month of console issues, Microsoft issues, and this game pretending that I didn’t pay for it when I did. Trust me, I take as little pleasure in typing this as you probably do in reading it. But I’m literally begging for help. I just want answers. I don’t even know who to contact because Blizzard had no answers and Microsoft’s solution worked once, and once only. (I tried all the steps she took me through again, and nothing changed.) I doubt taking my disc to Gamestop and using my warranty would help because it’s not the disc that’s the problem (or so I assume).

Please, someone, anyone, help. I’m about to lose my mind with this game. Even if your solution is “call Microsoft support and tell them you recieved XXXX error code” or “Email Xbox Live support at XXXX and tell them what’s up”, that would be great! I’ll try literally anything! For now, all I can do is regurgitate this insane story and hope and dream that someone out there had the same problem as me and found a solution.

Thanks for your time, and again, I’m genuinely sorry for the length of this.

3 Likes

Im having a similar issue. Did you figure out how to fix it

Please try doing a full uninstall of the game software from the console.

https://support.xbox.com/en-US/games/troubleshooting/free-up-hard-drive-space

Have tried that any other ideas would be appreciated

This idea may seem weird but hear me out. Completely sign out of Xbox Live, then shutdown the console (don’t just put it to sleep), then unplug the console from electrical power for a minimum of 30 seconds. Then plug back in, reboot, and sign back in. That should force the console to fully check over the Xbox live account and apply applicable changes.

Ill try that now
Thank you

No that didnt work thank you tho

Dang. This one you will need to contact Xbox Support for as they manage the licensing for each game and the Xbox Live system.

Ill try it now thank you

Did you ever find a fix for this?

1 Like

Hi i have also been suffering from these same symptoms and have been unable to play for over a year now, im afraid of buying a new disc if the issue is linked to my XBL account since i had downloaded a trial to it.

I’m wondering if anyone has found a work around! thank you would love to jump back into this game.

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