Microsoft’s long-term introductory offer for the Xbox Game Pass subscription platform, which allows users to pay for the first $1 a month before moving to more expensive installments, has finally ended.
As Edge reported recently, the deal, which applies to both Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, has been pulled, saying Microsoft: “We have discontinued the previous introductory offer for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass and we are evaluating different marketing offers for new members in the future”.
It’s anyone’s guess what these “various marketing promotions” might be, although the point of the $1 offer is to attract new users. A natural successor could easily be the Xbox Game Pass Friends and Family system, which has been tested in various markets. as of late 2012 despite being available in the US.
Anyone signed up to Game Pass will see their existing subscription months converted to partial months on their shared plan. If you are already an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriber, each remaining month will convert to 18 days of Game Pass Friends & Family. Those who signed up for split orders will see their subscriptions converted to 12 days of Game Pass for Friends and Family.
But there are some limitations. If you are the owner of the account, you can only add four people to the account at one time, and you can only participate with eight individual accounts per calendar year. Region is closed: only the primary account holder can add members who live in the same region or region.
While this isn’t a 1:1 replacement for the $1 offer, it was just a nice deal that means people recommending Xbox Game Pass to friends or family will have a very easy way to ship with their account.
It’s a disturbance to see the $1 offer go away, because I’m sure many/most of them have used it, but if you’re not ready at the time Xbox decided to start doing things like that… And you haven’t done enough work on television and games for the past five years.
