Confirmed: Microsoft halts Xbox Game Pass $1 trial offer, considers other promos “in the future”

Microsoft confirmed that it had stopped its $1 Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass trial offer. While this sounds like bad news, the Redmond company ensured other alternatives are being considered to continuously make Xbox gaming service appealing to new customers.

The $1 offer had been used by Microsoft to make the first month of Xbox subscription enticing to the gaming community. However, the promotion is now over, as confirmed by Xbox.

With this, signing up for an Xbox Game Pass will directly offer new members the three subscription tiers, costing $10/month for Xbox Game Pass on console; $10/month for Xbox Game Pass on PC; and $15/month for Xbox Cloud Gaming, PC, and console gaming. Despite this, the company promised new promotions to continuously attract new customers.

“We have stopped our previous introductory offer for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass and are evaluating different marketing promotions for new members in the future,” the head of global communications at Xbox, Kari Perez, told The Verge.

No further details were shared on what these new promotions will be. Yet, it is certain that Microsoft will offer them, especially now that it has expanded the PC Game Pass preview to 40 new countries, including Albania, Algeria, Bahrain, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Georgia, Guatemala, Honduras, Iceland, Kuwait, Latvia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Nicaragua, North Macedonia, Oman, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Qatar, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Tunisia, Ukraine, and Uruguay.

In addition, removing the $1 trial promo might be a part of Microsoft’s plan to boost the image of its Game Pass Friends & Family subscription plan. Although it costs around $25 a month, the fact that it can be shared with up to four individuals makes it cheaper than Xbox’s individual subscription offerings. However, the plan is still unavailable to the US and UK, but its further expansion is expected, especially after the company recently brought it to Chile, Hungary, Israel, New Zealand, South Africa, and Sweden after introducing it to Ireland and Colombia.