Microsoft Ends $1 Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass Trials: Report
The $1 trial allowed users to subscribe to Xbox Game Pass for a month before being charged $14.99 per month for the full Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription.
Microsoft has reportedly ended its long-running $1 trial offer for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. This offer has been around for several years, but the company is now looking at alternative promotions for new members.
Kari Perez, Head of Global Communications at Xbox, told The Verge, "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 $1 trial allowed users to subscribe to Xbox Game Pass for a month before being charged $14.99 per month for the full Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription or $9.99 a month for PC- or console-only subscriptions. While this promotion was a great way to introduce others to the service, it remains to be seen what alternative promotions Microsoft has planned for new subscribers.
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Microsoft is also working on expanding its Friends & Family plan for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which allows users to share their subscription benefits with up to four other individuals. Although the plan has been expanded to several countries, it is not yet available in many European markets or the US and UK. The removal of the $1 trial offer could indicate that Microsoft is preparing to expand Friends & Family even further, after testing the new subscription for less than a year.
Recently, Microsoft also made its PC Game Pass subscription available in 40 new countries, expanding Game Pass availability to a total of 86 markets, including Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is reportedly working on an Xbox mobile store to compete with Google Play store and Apple's App Store. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is currently looking into Microsoft's $68.7-billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and they have discovered the company's plans to create an Xbox-branded mobile game store, as per media reports.
To build a gaming store, the tech giant might use the successful mobile games Candy Crush Saga and Call of Duty: Mobile, which are produced by Activision and King, respectively.
According to a graph from the company, the mobile game industry represents a much larger portion of the overall gaming market at 51 per cent.
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