Xbox Game Pass’s awesome $1 trial just got less awesome

Microsoft has reduced its $1 / £1 Xbox Game Pass Ultimate offer to just a couple of weeks, slicing sixteen days off its runtime.

The offer, which gives new subscribers a chance to try out the full suite of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Xbox Cloud Gaming for just a buck, is still intact. However, new players will find it’s only good for 14 days now, as opposed to the 30 days it previously offered.

The change was initially spotted by Polish outlet XGP, but the adjustment to the offer does appear to have been made globally, as a visit to the official Xbox Game Pass landing page confirms.

The sudden downgrade to this Xbox Game Pass offer comes as a bit of a shock. The $1 / £1 trial was just relaunched last month, allowing players to enjoy many of the best Xbox Series X games and additional services like EA Play. 

Curiously, the change comes not long after a price increase for Xbox Game Pass, which pushed the base subscription up from $9.99/ £7.99 to $10.99 / £8.99. The Ultimate upgrade also went from $14.99 / £10.99 to $16.99 / £12.99 per month. The increase put Ultimate’s cost more in line with PS Plus Premium, which currently charges $17.99 / £13.49 for a month of subscription time.

The Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One service have been referred to as ‘the best deal in gaming’ in the past, and for good reason. Xbox Game Pass’s library is updated with new titles on a near-weekly basis, many of which are day-one launches from Xbox Game Studios and notable indie developers. Now, though, between the price hike last month and the new reduction of its trial value, that reputation just got a little less true.

If you are still planning on subscribing to Xbox Game Pass despite its price increases, be sure to have a browse of our best Xbox Game Pass games list for top recommendations from the TRG team.