[BUG] - DLC (Black Dog Pack as example) - PC - and those of us with Multiple Xbox Accounts - Issue

  • Monkeychow01
    Captain
    Insider

    So I've got a support ticket in for this with Rare, and I've talked with Xbox Live Support and we've figured out the problem with DLC (like the Black Dog Pack) for those of us with Multiple Microsoft Accounts (Xbox Live IDs).

    If you're like me, and an original Xbox user, you likely have 2 Microsoft accounts. One when Xbox Live came out (mine was with hotmail), and then one when windows 7 came out and required a microsoft account. Since at that time hotmail was shut down, it wouldn't allow you to use your ID to sign into windows or buy windows with it, so you had to create a new one with a new email. So I've got two. You guys see me talking on my original Xbox account, but I have another one with my gmail for my PC.

    I bought Sea of Thieves on my PC. So Cross-play unfortunately is completely out of the question for me. Because I have no way to get my PC account on my Xbox as my "main" account, since I have many games bought on my old Xbox account. I redeemed the Black Dog DLC on my hotmail account (this user ID I'm on), because the way it usually works is that "base games" can be shared among accounts, but DLC and addons only work on the ID you redeem them on.

    Now to lay the picture for everyone - PC is logged into Windows on one account. Xbox App on PC is logged into my hotmail account (Monkeychow01). This way I can play the game with my old Xbox live ID on my PC. The code was redeemed on my hotmail account (xbox support verified). I log into the game? I cannot see the items.

    If I sign out of the Xbox app and back in as my windows account (the Xbox live ID I don't use, but the one that the BASE game is bought on)....and I load into the game? Surprise, all the DLC is there. Normally (per xbox support), this isn't supposed to happen this way. The licences are applied to the Xbox Live ID, and the code is supposed to look at the ID, and not which ID the base game is associated with.

    So long story short. I have a ticket in with Xbox support that they're forwarding to Rare. I've got my own Rare support ticket from the website logged to ask them to fix this. And if you are in the same situation as me? You can't have your DLC right now. It's also a MAJOR concern for those of us on PC when DLC comes out, because if anyone is in my situation (using a different Xbox Live ID than the PC one you log into), and they buy DLC directly from the microsoft store on the PC (which would be natural instinct for folks that do not know you have to buy it online through xbox.com on the ID you use to play the game), then they will never get their DLC and it can cause quite an uproar because the code will be locked to the wrong account.

    If any of you are in this same situation, I'll let you know when Rare responds to the support ticket. But for now there is nothing we can do but wait for code to be updated.........

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  • eat1bread
    Founder

    Yes, this is indeed (likely) the issue for many, many people, and I figured this out last night.

    As of right now, I have the Black Dog pack redeemed on the wrong account. It's a shame, but I was on support chat with MS and they simply said if you redeemed a code on the wrong account then you are skull & b***d, if you know what I mean. It sucks, and you know, it sucks bad enough, that Rare should (imo) go through every active account right now (by Gamertag) that logged on at or around the release date and just give people this stupid Black Dog stuff, because this was communicated so poorly and is such a large problem that it would be far better to just have goodwill among the people who paid for the game (in full, I might add) rather than ignoring this.

    If you don't understand what OP is talking about, he is essentially saying that the account you have on your MS Store (on PC) is different than the account through the Xbox App you log in and play as. When you load Sea of Thieves, make sure your account through the MS Store is the SAME as the account that has your redeemed codes -- from there it doesn't matter what you log in as on the Xbox App you will have your loot.

  • Monkeychow01
    Captain
    Insider

    I will give Rare the benefit of the doubt on this one. This is through and through a Microsoft issue, that unless you are old school gamers, you don't think about. Yes, huge playerbase of us original gamers, but it's not something you think to code to. It IS silly that Microsoft has no way to back out a code once applied, but I think they did that for security purposes and social engineering their support staff (asking them to move licences around and remove them). I half get it. But it puts us in a pickle, and I feel for you @eat1bread . The only reason I knew to do it on the Monkeychow01 was because I remembered from WAY back in the day being told that DLC has to be on the account you play on. But it's not going to be something common that everyone thinks about.

    Not sure what the right fix should be for this, because TECHNICALLY Rare shouldn't be breaking the cardinal rule of Xbox IDs here (letting an account that doesn't have the code use the DLC). So my windows account shouldn't be seeing the DLC but my main account (Monkeychow01) from Xbox should be. They have to fix that in code, and likely that is what they will do.

    But, that isn't going to fix the situation where you're in Eat. Or anyone who doesn't know any better going forward with DLC. This mistake will happen a LOT.....so not sure how you prevent it :(

  • Virasht
    Master
    Founder

    @monkeychow01 Im in the same exact situation then you are. Took me forever to try and explain this to them. Thing is it happenned because i merged my xbox live and microsoft account as one. And the support here simply keeps sending me the copy paste of their twitter status. i wish you good luck mate .

  • Lord Sphinktus

    This isn't a bug, this is how Xbox live is intended to work. Each account is an entirely separate identity. Sorry you found this out the hard way. This is in part to prevent or at least hinder profile jumping to avoid banhammer.

  • Monkeychow01
    Captain
    Insider

    @virasht -I surprisingly got a very knowledgeable Xbox live support agent in chat, that honestly should be a Tier 2! So between their creative thinking, and my willingness to mess around with my accounts, we figured it out. So this guy is going to forward it to the Rare development team, and the hope is between them pushing the code issue from their side, my support ticket with Rare that I updated about the code issue, and this forum message, it should get past the Tier 1 support at Rare and right to the devs. (that's the hope at least) So crossing fingers and will keep everyone updated.

  • Monkeychow01
    Captain
    Insider

    @lord-sphinktus - Correct for Eat's situation. But not mine. Code is applied to the Xbox ID that I use in game. But for some reason, their code is reading it backwards. DLC and Addons are applied "per ID", not per where you bought your base game. So you redeem codes specifically while logged into certain IDs (as I did). In my situation, I should be seeing the DLC.

    unfortunately in Eat's situation - the code is applied to a different account (the base windows account), so there's no fixing it in that situation. I'm not sure of the remedy here, but it's not intuitive for the casual PC user that you needed to use the account that you're using in the Xbox App.

    Mine on the other hand? Not supposed to be happening this way and I should be seeing the DLC. So hopefully code will end up fixing it.

  • Corsa1r

    Oh my god. I was going insane thinking this was a bug in the game not allowing me to see my stuff and now it makes sense... my codes are redeemed on my old xbox account and I have SoT on my windows account..c**p. When I logged into my old Xbox account on windows, it gave me the option to 'play for now' since it was installed on this machine, and when I logged in, all my content was available, I logged out, then back into my microsoft account where SoT is 'licensed' to and I still am able to access the content... This really needs to be fixed by Rare. I hope they send us codes to tie to the correct accounts at least.

  • Monkeychow01
    Captain
    Insider

    All - a HUGE thank you to @rockdoctor11b2c . He figured out a trick that quite honestly I wouldn't have thought of.

    So, not only can you change your Xbox App sign in account, you can also change your Microsoft Store Sign in. Click the person in the top right corner. Sign it in with your old Xbox account. If you do that....all your items will show up in game!! I just tested and confirmed.

    Now reminder, this only fixes it if you redeemed your DLC on your Xbox Account that you play with. If you happened to redeem it right in the microsoft store on your normal windows account, it does not fix that problem. Reminder on that that the way microsoft works unfortunately is once a code is set..it's locked.......so I have no idea how they will work this out (but I'm updating my support ticket to explain this fix). I'm also slightly screwed in this way, because I bought the game on my windows account, so I won't be able to do Play Anywhere :( If only I had known when I first bought the game that you could change your windows store sign in. I'd like to consider myself an Advanced PC user, and even I didn't notice you could do that..so it's going to be EXTREMELY easy to miss this step.

    @PersonalC0ffee - This only affects those of us that are "old" (and I'm saying that lovingly.....but to make some of us feel REALLY old.....it's been almost 20 years.....yea...think about that for a minute.....). There's a bunch of us back in the days of AOL, IRC, (insert more words here that the new kids won't remember....9600 baud modem!) that jumped on the bandwagon of Xbox live and have split IDs.

  • Virasht
    Master
    Founder

    @monkeychow01 ok so yea i tried switching my xbox app login and yea part of my items are on it... but i lose all progress, my friends list, etc..

  • Monkeychow01
    Captain
    Insider

    @PersonalC0ffee haha ok those of us OLDER than that did the hotmail ;)

    @Virasht - So here's the deal (like my OP), if you redeemed your DLC in the Microsoft store before doing that, or NOT on your Xbox App...then you're SOL.....it's locked :( you have my condolences. If you redeemed it in the Xbox App on your normal login. Then make sure to use your normal login in the Microsoft store, and it will work.

  • Virasht
    Master
    Founder

    @monkeychow01 meh i'll see what they can do, So i never redeemed anything since i pre ordered in december, they just put some of my stuff on each account..

  • SenileGold
    Seafarer
    Insider

    @monkeychow01 my main email is still hotmail it just got absorbed by outlook but works fine.

  • a13on
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    Hotmail wasn't shut down, it got renamed to Outlook. Any Hotmail email automatically received an @outlook.com email address that works perfectly withWindows 7 and higher.

  • Corsa1r

    See, I was able to log into my old Xbox login and then switch back to my main SoT (Microsoft) account and still access my content, but that's not exactly a 'fix'. I'm glad I can use it, but I'd love it if Rare/Microsoft could let us transfer either the game or the DLC to the account of our choosing. Doesn't seem like it's be difficult. At the very least give us codes for the content we already own and redeem it in the appropriate account...

  • JingleBerry69
    Marauder
    Insider

    You can verify you have both the game and DLC codes on the same account by logging in and checking here: https://account.microsoft.com/billing/orders

    This was the problem for me. Everything must be ordered on the same account.

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