Microsoft has decided to do away with its $1 trial promotion for new customers signing up with its Game Pass subscription service. It’s been a great way to bring people in with a little bait at the end of the lure, allowing them to become addicted to the vast selection of games and wanting more.
The trial worked for all subscription levels of the Game Pass service and gave users a full month of use for that price. After which the normal price of the selected tier would begin ($9.99-$14.99). The promotion was so well marketed that you could find $1 trial codes everywhere, from gaming events to retail stores, and even tucked inside new games you buy.
However, the company feels that it is time for a new approach, thus it is “evaluating different marketing promotions for new members in the future”. A new lure that might be more enticing to the user or possibly more profitable for the company. It will be a hard promotion to one-up but as subscription costs continue to rise, so do the need for justification.
Game Pass continues to be a success for Microsoft as it moves users away from the old Gold memberships and toward the more inclusive solution. With Game Pass, not only do users have access to a vast library of games to download, but some of them can be played directly from the cloud. Also, with the Ultimate tier, users can play their favorite games from a number of devices, including mobile devices, opening Xbox beyond the console or PC.
It’s still debatable when it comes to how profitable the subscription service can be for game developers though. There is a lot of money to be made when it comes to selling games at full price. Some numbers will tell you that there is just as much money to be made with these subscription services while other numbers say differently. However, for Microsoft (as a service), it is a gold mine.
