Insider Gaming: XBOX GAME PASS $1 DEAL REMOVED GLOBALLY

https://insider-gaming.com/xbox-game-pass-one-dollar-deal-removed/

It was a fantastic thing, signing up for an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription on the eve of a brand-new game being released and paying just $1 for it. Then, you play and complete that game, before cancelling recurring billing and moving on with your life. Hey presto, you’ve just played a day one, top-tier Xbox game for the grand sum of $1.

Originally reported by XGP.pl (and circulated on Twitter by Idle Sloth), the Xbox Game Pass promotional deal – which has existed for years – appears to have disappeared on a global scale. When new users attempt to sign up for a subscription, they’re no longer offered the massively discounted rate for the first month.

Instead, they’re prompted to start paying full price from the word ‘go’.

It could be that Xbox is preparing to recoup on some financials ahead of the Activision Blizzard acquisition – which looks like it will go ahead – or it could be that it’s anticipating a lot of full-price Xbox Game Pass sales with all the stunning titles launching this year on the service, like Starfield and Redfall.

One more thing! Next is price hikes. Likely to come after the Activision deal closes.

Yeah, this was expected.

hilarious if true

Sony fans not gonna like this. Now Microsoft making money.

Well surely no one expected that deal to last forever right?

all promotional deals end eventually..

the price of literally any subscription service raises eventually..

bold predictions indeed.. 🙄

Up anchor, she's away!

Now with the extra money, Microsoft can afford to buy more games and studios for GamePass.

Also of course the price will increase at sometime in the future. We’ve already been over this and I’m pretty sure everyone is in agreement with that. I’ve been paying full price for awhile now and I’m very satisfied with the value that I am getting from it. I even would be satisfied paying more for it.

some folks want to be "right" so bad, they'll do a victory lap for predicting rain in Seattle.. ☔

@Antwan3K: Yeah, it’s kind of sad really. When the price goes up they’ll be shouting from the rooftops, “I told y’all so!” Very bold. 😅

Totally expected this so this isn't a huge surprise here.

Imagine paying $20-$30 for a subscription service, lems will still call it the best deal in gaming.

When you could subscribe for $1 it was very concerning but now that you can't it's very concerning too. I've been paying for it since day one at full price (might have skipped a few months) so this doesn't concern me. But of course it's super concerning overall. I'm very concerned.

Im surprised they kept the $1 promotion as long as they did.

Seems like they would've dropped it years ago, its been going for 6yrs

What dumbass did not expect this?

Where did you come up with those figures?

It will be interesting to see who is a GamePass member when they actually have to pay for it 🤣

They probably would have if their subscriber counts were near or better than what they projected.

Along with a price hike around May, I expect Gamepass will be overhauled. They will introduce a tiered plan where gamepass at or near the same price as it is now will be the base plan. The base plan will not include day and date releases. They'll then add a new level that costs more and will include day and date releases. Gamepass+. This plan might also include some extra benefits to make it worth the upgrade besides day one games.

Then they'll finally roll out the family plan and have family plan versions of these tiers. So Gamepass Family and Gamepass Family+.

This is how you generate the most revenue with subscription plans. This will also be a good way to do a price hike without just raising the price. It makes it seem like you're getting more out of the subscription.

To be fair, that's a significant reach based off your OP. It'll be interesting to see if it rings true.

It's not based on the OP, this has been my guess on where Gamepass will go in the future.

They must REALLY be banking on Starfield to stop GP from being stagnant.

Also, LOL at the people eagerly awaiting to pay more for Game Pass. That's some real corporate slavery. GP is gonna be the new cable bill for gamers if MS buys up enough of the market.

Ahhh, gotcha. Would be interesting to see.

Indeed. Every subscription service seems to have levels. Netflix, Disney+, Playstation Plus, HBO Max, just to name a few. Disney's the interesting one because when theaters were closed, they had a Disney+ Premier plan that let people see brand new movies from home. I think it was an extra $20.

What's curious is that they would stop this promotion quietly without having a new promotion in place.

No one would be that dense right?😏

@BenjaminBanklin: I’m not “eagerly awaiting to pay more”, I’m comfortable in the prospect of potentially paying more. There is a difference. As long as a product or service gives me a level of value the I find befitting of the cost then I will by that product or subscribe to that service. If not then I won’t. That’s certainly not “corporate slavery”.

I bet the people most upset about this news are the ones who were planning on paying $1 for Redfall and Starfield.

@Pedro: I wish that I could believe that to be true. 😅

Gamepass has really been eating away at Sony fannies soul for years. They have been praying for a Gamepass price hike ever since they greenlit Sony's $70 pricetag.😂

@Pedro: Yeah, it’s nuts how twisted they get about it.

They're bleeding money. This service puts all their game profits in the negative. Soon it'll be a $25/month sub cuz they're desperate to make a profit on their first game. I mean look at infinite, their flagship game made them so little money they had to cut local coop development to have enough resources to release 1 new pvp map per year and finish Forge. This is simply pathetic.

I still think going forward games will have paid DLC. Offsetting the loss from what could have been made in traditional sales.

Imagine a subscription service increasing their price.

Never happened that one.

Profit and sales Sony fanboys will be devastated MS will make more money.

As a £1 new subscriber every month,I now just use Microsoft rewards for my ultimate... costing me nothing but a few minutes every day

Thank you Xbox.

For the players

Its about bloody time.

It was nothing more than a mega intro offer, lets not pretend its the beginning of anything else.

I predict gamepass subscriptions will drop by 50% now.

@joshrmeyer: Actually it will increase their numbers. People think a dollar service is junk. That’s why it’s a dollar. But now that it cost more people will think it’s more valuable.

@mesome713: Ah, the Sony method($70 games)

lol. I used that deal for about two years. All I had to do was cancel the renewal of the sub as soon as I started it. Then I had the same deal again when the sub was over. Rinse and repeat. So I've never payed more than $1 for gamepass. Since I barely used it when I had an active sub, I see no reason to sub unless it's $1.

Also, see the irony in cows claiming some sort ownage here?

Cows: "I LOVE paying full price for games and supporting the developers"

Also Cows: "lol now people won't be able to scam developers with the $1 trail, OWNED for not being able to scam developers". And it was the cows here who claimed they'd scam developers to play MSs new releases on the PC.

Truth is, MSs Studios are starting to bare fruit, so why would they have this?

Also, they only said "this" deal is gone. I wouldn't be surprised if they change it to a 7 day trial or something. One month was far too long to be fair to them.

@Zero_epyon: this is great news. They were really devaluing how amazing the service is with these cheap $1 deals. MS deserves more money for this amazing service, it should be raided to $20/month.

Didn't take long for the cows to have a meltdown over this 😂

:P

@BenjaminBanklin: lol, this is where you're wrong. GP is great, but not everyone has the time to play all those games. Even if they end all the loopholes and deals, many including myself will go month to month as needed. My library backlog is huge right now.

Contrary to cow beliefs, gamepass value is far higher than dollar bin pricing. That promo needed to end a long time ago.

@random_matt: Paid DLC is already a thing for Gamepass.