Xbox Removes $1 Game Pass Trial As Black Ops 6 Launch Looms

You keep encouraging people to join Xbox GPU along with your over expensive 1tb discless series x at £429.99.

Totally expected....this is the subscription maker!

@OldGamer999 Would you rather pay $450.00 for a digital only PlayStation that doesn't offer GamePass and still driveless?

So I guess Xbox is the best way to go.

Totally expected because I was looking to see if black ops 6 is play anywhere and it isn't so on note recouping the costs is necessary I suppose.

In fairness, @OldGamer999, Xbox would make vastly less money if it were to allow people to join for just £1 right now. If people are going to join Game Pass just to play CoD, then it is better that they pay full price, like the rest of us that are long time subscribers. I'd prefer that Microsoft make money from these people joining just to play CoD, than increase the cost of GP because loads of people joined having paid just £1, and then left after their £1 trial was over. After all, if CoD doesn't make money on Game Pass, all that will happen is prices will go up, yet again, to make up the shortfall. Why should people get to play the game for £1 when the rest of us Xbox loyal players are paying full price for our subscriptions...?

I have 'zero' issue with this...

I doubt that its strictly down to the addition of CoD, although that is likely to be the biggest (in terms of player numbers) but its also likely to make the most money with Season Passes and all the bundles/MTX's they'll also sell. Its also a game that MANY will play for more than 2wks/1month too.

I would think its also a game like Indiana Jones - which is also a Licenced game so likely needs to 'sell' more to be 'profitable' for both. Add in Flight Sim 2024 and Stalker 2, its arguably the most 'packed' Game Pass couple of months that a $1 deal could hurt more than when their line up is lacking, when there is a Lull in Big releases. Not only that, a Lull in releases is likely to coincide with a lull in new Subscribers so it makes sense to offer some 'deal' like a $1 trial.

Surprised they hadn't got rid of it sooner! Makes no sense at all to let people join for £1 when their biggest release is coming up.

I agree with @Major_Player and @Fiendish-Beaver. It's still cheap to pay one month of Game Pass for the latest Call of Duty, but Call of Duty keeps topping the Game Pass and Xbox software charts many months after launch (same on the other platforms). Modern Warfare III is on second place on Xbox right now, just behind free-to-play Fortnite. I guess that it's a long-term investment and definitely profitable after the acquisition; but that doesn't mean that anyone should be allowed to play it for the same price as a rubbish mobile game. Besides, the engagement (active users and subscribers) of Xbox users is high, so it's working for Microsoft.

Whilst I agree with your assessment, @Medic_alert, though the likelihood is that those that buy a subscription to play CoD will not stay beyond that first month (or whatever the term of their subscription is) so it's better that Microsoft make much more money out of them, rather than let them play for a month for just £1 and then leave.

The £1 offer is best utilised when the offerings for Game Pass are lean (so much of this year, in truth!). However, with the first-party line-up that is coming over the next few months, it is the right time to try and maximise those profits, especially if people would simply join, play CoD, or play Indian Jones, and then leave after just one month having paid just £1. There has to be a level of fairness to existing subscribers that are paying full price too...

Besides what have been posted above, on Sony's subscription, first-party games take a long while to join the service, and that means more value on Game Pass. Offering a first-tier release on day one for one pound/euro/dollar is just ridiculous. They already have a free-to-play Call of Duty.

@Banjo- GamePass Ultimate is undoubtedly worth every penny, as it will save you money on Call of Duty but also on every game available on right now and beyond.

@themightyant Exactly and I'd be willing to bet the Majority of the dedicated CoD players will 'buy' the game. I cannot see PS5 CoD gamers jumping to Xbox now MS has it in Game Pass either so I still believe the 'majority will choose to 'buy' anyway. And like I said, its a game most CoD gamers will play 'all year'.

If you only play Campaign, chances are you haven't really been part of the 'CoD' community. You aren't buying the game at launch and if/when you do buy, its often years later in a sale or even used. So if you do 'jump in' because of Game Pass - that's a 'win' too. That person likely wouldn't have bought or contributed to its 'profitability' during its 'year' of support. Of course MS hope that now hey can play when its 'current', they may go on to spend money on it too (season passes, CoD points, bundles etc).

I'd 'imagine' it would take ALL the CoD gamers on PS5 to suddenly opt to pay $1 to play on Game Pass on PC for example - not buy Season passes etc and then quit after their deal is up. Therefore they don't get the Sales (even on 3rd Party Platforms), don't get the Subs or sub fees over the year and the game itself 'dies' due to lack of players.It supposedly makes more money on PS5 for Sony on just 'extras' than it costs to make and its likely to increase the sales of 'extras' on Xbox as more people will play it on Xbox - more Seasonal content sold over the 'year'.

Indiana Jones, with its 3rd Party License will likely have a much smaller 'profit margin' as that is split between MS as the Publisher and LucasArts/Disney as the IP holder. Couple that with Game Pass and the fact its not likely to be a game that 'sells' a lot of additional content (let alone units if its on Game Pass), a long with games like Flight Sim and Stalker 2 as well, then these are more likely to be why the price went up and/or no $1 deals. Besides that, if they don't sell subs to play those games, they'll still sell them and I expect CoD to 'sell' as its cheaper to buy and play all year (and beyond) than Sub for a year even with a $1 deal...

@Major_Player except you are wrong.

He was quoting UK.

Ps5 digital is sub £400 (there’s a sale reducing further currently)

Series X digital is £430

Regarding the US I can see ps5 digital is around $450

Obviously the S is slightly cheaper. (But the X and 5 are closest spec wise)

So I see MS being more expensive??

@themightyant I don't totally agree with the idea that people subscribing to Gamepass for CoD is an automatic win for Microsoft. A one month digital code for Ultimate is currently $16.99 on Amazon in the US (3 months codes are on sale at $45). I wonder how many people out there buy CoD day one and play it a ton, but are essentially done by around New Years Day. That would really only require 2 or 3 months of subscription. People who would normally pay $70 accessing the game for $30 or $45 through Gamepass then dropping and moving on would be a loss.

There is absolutely a risk that this backfires for Microsoft, we'll just have to see how it plays out.

@Major_Player
Hang on we are UK here.
Series x 1tb discless £429.99
PS5 1tb discless £389.99.

Also you have an option to add the a disc drive latter if you wish to the PS5 discless console for £99.99.
With series x 1tb discless you cannot.

You really need to do your research first.

Whatever you or I think which is cool.
Console sales world wide say it.

Totally shocked and surprised 😛

Very interested if the GP needle will move at all with COD on the service. People who play that game every year, probably buy it anyway but ... maybe a % of those players will not buy COD, use it on the service, and start to dabble in other games and maybe like it more than expected?

I mean, there are some interesting other games until the end of the year to try out ...

@OldGamer999 It still works out far cheaper and better to own an Xbox than a PS5.
From Sonys overpriced add on read only proprietary drive, to being locked into their expensive store for Everything Digital, an almost total lack of AAA First Party game releases for years now , poor games even on their most expensive subscription service, being made to look even worse now Microsoft are getting into the swing of being able to yearly release multi AAA games Day One of release to Gamepass. 'Play Anywhere' games on Gamepass only having to buy the game once but also being able to play it elsewhere effectively being BOGOF, 'EA Play'.
Sony Not allowing backward compatibility with older consoles instead making you pay for a top tier subscription just to play some random PS1 and 2 games even if you bought the games before!
I mean seriously Sony even make you pay for a subscription for cloud saves lol which are FREE on Xbox.

If people are of a mind to join GP in order to play CoD for more than a few months, @Medic_alert, chances are they're going to buy it anyway. If you hang around for 3 or 4 months of GP subscription, then you may as well have bought the game. Will you entice more people to join GP for just £1? Absolutely you will. However, you would need to attract 15 or more gamers paying £1 for every one paying a straight up £15 for GP. In other words, just for ease, lets say that one million people sign up at £15 a month, for just one month in order to play the game. If the offer of £1 was still on, you'd need to attract 15 million. In theory, the one million is possible, but 15 million? Probably not. Indeed, you could actually see more than a million join. So if that number were to increase to two million new, one month subscribers, then you would need to attract 30 million new subscribers at £1. That effectively means you would need to double what we currently have subscribed to Game Pass, and that just is not going to happen. Now, I fully accept that you can get one month for cheaper than £15, but the same arithmetic still applies, if you can get it for £10, then you need to attract 10 times the number of people that you would for £1, and so on.

Ultimately, anyone that is a hardcore CoD player, who is not already subscribed to Game Pass, will probably be buy the game outright. New subscribers will be those that just want to check out the campaign, or maybe dabble in Zombies or a bit of PvP. Those are the gamers that Microsoft wants to see join GP. The ones that'll play for a month, and then return to whence they came from. Great if someone chooses to stick with the ecosystem after joining, but I don't think that dial will be greatly moved. People have already made up their minds regarding Xbox this far into the generation. Not many new consoles will be sold at this point as it would be cheaper to simply buy CoD than buy a console to play it. Thus Microsoft are looking to maximise short-term revenue rather than expecting to see an influx of new long-term subscribers or new console owners...

@OldGamer999 : Correction for you:
The PS5 digital in most parts of the world is currently going between €430.00 and €450.00 as Sony has increased their prices thanks to the overpriced PS5 Pro....it will be just a matter of time until the UK sees that price increase as well. in which by the way PS5 come with far less than 1tb, opposed to the Series X digital edition it comes with a legit 1tb, more power efficient and most possibly going on sale as well for $399.99 for the holidays....

second of all if you buy a digital PS5 only to change your mind in adding a disc drive afterwards then it becomes even more expensive than any Xbox on the market.

Let's not forget PSPlus instead of GamePass, PlayStation's total deal breaker with Call of Duty not available on Day 1 for PSPlus subscribers.

That's a smart business decision.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner : The PS5 digital in most parts of the world is currently going between €430.00 and €450.00 as Sony has increased their prices thanks to the team overpriced PS5 Pro....it will be just a matter of time until the UK sees that price increase as well.

Second of all the fact that PlayStation doesn't offer GamePass people with that machine are stuck in buying Day 1 releases as GamePass is gaming's biggest advantage...Call of Duty for Example!

@Major_Player
Like I said if it’s all that great how come series consoles are being outsold by PS5 consoles in the home country USA.
And also in Europe by at least 3:1.
60 million PS5 world wide
29 million series consoles world wide
With the gap increasing every month.

You have no idea about Europe and console prices and sales. I guess you work for Xbox then, as they have no idea as well.

@Rog-X
Look I’ve been a Xbox gamer since day one original Xbox and every Xbox console since.

I’m just pointing out out that they could do better in console sales if they try harder especially in Europe and the UK.

And remember when general public see.
Series x 1tb discless £429.99
PS5 1tb discless £389.99

It does not help sell Xbox consoles, Sony are clever to put it under that £400 price and the number 3 in £389.99 works great with parents and general public.

@OldGamer999 Why would the PS5 sell better than the Series X?

I never said most people use common sense.....

@Major_Player
🤣🤣🤣

Also remember that posters represent 0.00000001% of the consumers. Most PS players don't buy a PS for PS exclusives, but because PS4 was the default console last generation and some of them along with PS fans are on PS5 now. We can see on the best-selling charts last generation and this generation, that the best-selling games are usually third party: Minecraft, Call of Duty, GTA and EA FC/Madden. Two of them belong to Xbox now. What really matters is the revenue, including software sales and subscriptions. PS is approaching Windows for a reason. Xbox is already there.

Makes sense. You own the biggest annual franchise, you have the marketing deal with the game, and it's "free" for the first time ever at launch on your subscription service. Why would you give it away for $1 for new subscribers when you can get $20 from them and they'll gladly pay it instead of spending $70 USD?

It's OK for me, I pre-ordered through the 9,99 offer at Gamestop. So I'll pick up my disc version next week, even if the disc got a bit useless with Call of Duty.

@Major_Player just fyi ps5 digital is currently £335 in the uk after a temporary but official Sony price cut.