Still great value but the trial isn’t what it once was (pic: Microsoft)
Microsoft has altered how long the $1/£1 trial for Game Pass lasts and now you can only get it for 14 days instead of 30.
For years now Xbox Game Pass has been known as the best deal in gaming but if something is good value for customers it often means it’s costing the manufacturer dearly, even if there may be reasons why they don’t mind.
Game Pass certainly does draw people to Xbox but it’s never seemed to be quite as popular as Microsoft hoped, with reports of it missing internal targets and take-up of both it and PlayStation Plus beginning to stall.
A few months ago, Microsoft stopped their famous $1/£1 trail for Game Pass but after complaints from fans they brought it back in July. Now they’ve changed it again, more than halving the length of trial from 30 days to just 14.
To be honest, that’s still more than worth it, but it does hint at the fact that Game Pass is not going according to plan and Microsoft realises things can’t go on as they were.
It’s not clear when exactly they made this particular change, but it seems to have happened sometime last week – although for obvious reasons Microsoft didn’t advertise the fact.
When it first brought back the trial, Microsoft said that it was, ‘evaluating different marketing promotions for new members in the future.’
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Some fans have already suggested that this may be a pre-emptive strike to ensure people don’t have enough time to sign up and play through Starfield and then skip out without ever having paid more than a £1.
Although, on the flipside, the idea that Microsoft thinks nobody has any chance of completing Starfield within 14 days is an encouraging one.
What’s not so encouraging is that the last few months have also seen price increases for both the Xbox Series X console and the cost of Game Pass Ultimate, which means it’s getting more and more expensive to immerse yourself in the Xbox ecosystem.
14 days is all you get now (Picture: Microsoft)
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Microsoft has altered how long the $1/£1 trial for Game Pass lasts and now you can only get it for 14 days instead of 30.