Xbox does it again: removes its €1 trial just before the arrival of CoD on Game Pass

The reality is clear and harsh for Xbox. After almost five years of Game Pass, their service has far fewer customers than they anticipated when they presented their estimates to the management. Xbox thought that by the end of the decade they would have 100 million active subscribers and the reality is very different, especially because in three years they have barely grown.

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To turn the tables, Microsoft gave the green light to the purchase of Activision Blizzard, with what it meant for Game Pass: Call of Duty, Diablo, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, etc. For that reason, we do not understand the move that concerns us today.

Microsoft has removed the one euro trial version of Xbox Game Pass (one dollar in the U.S.), just days before the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on October 25.

If you want to play, pay for the full month says Xbox

The 14-day trial version of Game Pass was withdrawn on October 8th, preventing users from subscribing to the trial version and playing the Black Ops 6 campaign without having to pay for a full month of Game Pass. That is, on PC it costs 12 euros if we choose the cheapest rate and 18 euros for the Ultimate.

In March of last year, Microsoft suspended the one-dollar trial period for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass for the first time, before reinstating it and reducing it to 14 days instead of a full month. Subsequently, Xbox briefly removed the one-dollar trial a few days before the debut of Starfield in September.

It’s not surprising that the $1 trial version of Xbox Game Pass has been removed again, especially since Microsoft hopes that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will increase the number of Game Pass subscribers.

For months Microsoft has been debating whether to include the new versions of Call of Duty in Game Pass, with some company members concerned that the revenue generated by typical Call of Duty sales would be undermined by Game Pass.

A one-dollar trial would undoubtedly reduce sales and subscriptions, especially when Activision traditionally sells more than 20 million copies of Call of Duty on average, at about 70 dollars each.

Microsoft also plans to bring Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Modern Warfare III, and Warzone to Xbox Cloud Gaming at the end of this month. Here comes the litmus test for Xbox: will their big bet work?