End of an era: Microsoft $1 Game Pass Ultimate trial is gone

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Everyone loves free and cheap trials, especially when they give you a lot of content.

The Xbox Game Pass (and its different tiers like the Game Pass Ultimate) has been a staple for nearly six years and has been the most cost-saving way to play many games. 

The $1 Game Pass Ultimate Trial has been the crowning way to get into well over 300 games across both PC and Xbox for newcomers and returning players.

Once the trial ends after one month, the service goes to $14.99 per month. That changes now, as the $1 Game Pass Ultimate Trial has been sunset entirely.

Game Pass Trial? More Like Game Passed On!

According to The Verge, Kari Perez, head of global communications at Xbox, gave a brief statement. She said:

“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.”

PC Gamer dug into the stats for how well the Game Pass really does. They found that it was severely lacking in their subscriber growth rates. Growth for Fiscal Year 2022 (ending in June 2022) was at 28.07%.

For most companies, that’s a fantastic number! But, Microsoft was looking at a 72.88% growth rate projection, making this fall very flat. The year prior had similar numbers.

The last time the Game Pass Trial did its job was basically the beginning of the pandemic. You know, when people were bored at home during quarantine.

Sadly, this means that everyone’s favorite cheap way to play the newest Xbox games when they come out has outlived its usefulness as a business model.

Upon a quick cursory search, it appears that the $1 Game Pass Ultimate Free Trial has already gotten the Thanos Snap treatment. We’re sad to see it go, but we await what it gets replaced with.

You can still join Game Pass Ultimate right now at full price or grab 3 months for only $23.

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Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.