The $1 offer for Xbox Game Pass has been a major component of Microsoft"s marketing of the popular subscription services since its inception. It boasts easy and extremely cheap access to the horde of games inside the services, tempting new users to simply "try it out" for a couple of weeks. However, if anyone has been looking forward to making use of the offer anytime soon, they have missed their chance.
October 8 had been the last day the offer had been available on the Microsoft Store (noticed by The Verge). Interestingly, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launches October 25 on Game Pass, making it the first ever Call of Duty entry to do so on the day of launch.
The $1 offer"s removal means nobody is able to jump into the highly-anticipated campaign of Black Ops 6 and play it using during the two-week trial period. Now, they must either spring for the full $69.99 price tag of the game, or subscribe to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass for their full cost of $19.99 and $11.99, respectively.
The trial offer had performed a similar disappearing trick right before the launch of Starfield last year, meaning this may have become a recurring strategy for major first-party releases of Microsoft. The $1 trial also used to last 30 days, but in August of last year, Microsoft reduced this to 14-days.
It"s been a year since Microsoft officially acquired Activision Blizzard. As Black Ops 6 lands, the company is also slowly expanding the number of games it"s bringing over to Game Pass from the publishing giant. Modern Warfare III and Warzone hits Xbox Cloud Gaming later this month alongside the StarCraft franchise for PC Game Pass. Even exclusive Overwatch 2 benefits are now available to subscribers.