Back in early July, you may recall that Xbox reintroduced its $1 offer for a month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass, but that trial has just been slashed to 14 days (for the same price) across various regions.
The new time period of 14 days is now being advertised on the official Xbox website:
Microsoft has played around with these Xbox Game Pass trials on a few occasions in the past, even stopping the offer altogether back in March before it was brought back in July. In other words, it never stays the same for long.
Don't forget that for PC Game Pass specifically, there's also a method of inviting up to five friends to join the program for a free trial - but again, it's only for 14 days. It's a better alternative to paying $1 though!
What are your thoughts on this? Let us know down in the comments section below.
Comments 17
Still a bargain to test out the service to see if you want to commit to a monthly sub.
Seems like a strange move given the current sentiment toward Xbox.
Wonder what their game plan is here.
@InterceptorAlpha I'd guess it's possible to beat Starfield in a month and/or something to do with the Activision acquisition.
If Starfield can be beaten in a month then all you need to is sign up for a month of GPU for £1/$1 and then let the subscription lapse because you're finished with the game.
Meanwhile regarding the Activision acquisition, Microsoft probably feel they can get away with making lots of things worse value because they'll own CoD.
@Grumblevolcano IMO it may be some pressure coming down from Microsoft onto Xbox. A lot of things have increased in price and reduced in value recently.
Console/game price hikes (including strange new series S choice)
GP price hike
Conversion is reduced
Point rewards are lower
Less games/less AAA added to GP
Maybe they are putting pressure to increase Revenue as hardware is down, subscription stalling (also stalling on ps) but software revenue grew, so maybe trying to get more out of it and see where people are comfortable price wise
@Grumblevolcano
Feeling a little bit dumb I didn't think of either of those.
Keeps people from "dollaring" up just to knock out Starfield.
And the Activision side, especially with those shadow updates to classics, makes perfect sense.
Good call.
@PsBoxSwitchOwner It's what almost all businesses end up doing. Do something extremely good value to gain users, then slowly make stuff more expensive/reduce the number of benefits to increase profits. We also have everything getting more expensive in general which will be a part of it as well.
However, game pass will still be good value to most people, especially when your comment about "less games/less AAA added to GP" doesn't appear to be true or at least not a deliberate thing. Many publishers have had a quieter year, possibly as a side effect of development going slower during Covid. From their showcase, things are definitely picking up soon with plenty of day-one games.
@Lightning720 there are less games on average being added per month. Of course it’s still great value can’t deny that.
@PsBoxSwitchOwner I agree, never denied that but it is clear in general that from many publishers, fewer games have been released this year. It's not exactly surprising that fewer games would then be released on gamepass.
However, it is clear things are picking up over the next few months, with XBox releasing two big games in the next two months, with many more coming soon.
@Sifi what’s Sony got to do with it?
When I first joined game pass, I paid 1£ for 3 months of ultimate. Wasn't 1 month. Sucks that it's now 14 days.
It's not even available in some regions...
You could make $10-$12 in MS Rewards points in 2 weeks.
Microsoft really banking on Starfield & the Activision purchase justifying all these anti-consumer changes...
I mean, that $1 sweetheart deal was only going to take Microsoft so far.
I had 2 years of Gold on the books (which I only paid $50 for) and I got Game Pass Ultimate for $1 and it converted my entire Gold subscription to Game Pass. I thought I had done something illegal! LOL!
It was only a matter of time before Microsoft was going to tighten things up as I am sure tons of people were taking advantage of deals at Microsoft's expense.
Even $1 for the whole month was a steal. I wouldn't be shocked if that $1 is eventually shortened to 7 days at some point down the line.
as long as it still converts gold/core to gamepass ultimate i dont care
Big bad Microsoft!
They should have kept their incredibly generous Gold to GamePass Ultimate conversion and $1/£1 monthly trial going add-infinitum. Then people can brag about how they are playing the biggest Xbox releases for peanuts and Microsoft would get virtually nothing from them whilst complaining about anti consumer moves when the grace period comes to an end(sarcasm mode on). Just can't make it up😅😅.
@InterceptorAlpha They've failed to hit subscriber targets at least two years running and while their revenue from subscription services segment has increased this year, it isn't as much as the competition. Microsoft have bet big on Game Pass and they will want to start seeing bigger returns sooner than later.
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