Microsoft has waved goodbye to its famous $1 Xbox Game Pass trial, just days before the much-anticipated release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on October 25th. Gaming initiative for he success of the new campaign which cost a dime for those gamblers who want to sneak in.
Microsoft recently decide to cancel the $1 trial here is why
But this was not the first time that Microsoft has withdrawn its budget trial version, or at least made it quite difficult to acquire one. Back in March last year, it paused the $1 Game Pass trial for both Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, only to later bring it back with a little catch: and instead of treating gamers to a whole month, they were only given 14 days. Well, now, like it did with Starfield when it detailed plans for the game in September, Microsoft has once again taken down the $1 trial right before a new update. Perhaps Microsoft doesn’t want gamers to play Black Ops 6 without subscribing to the Game Pass for a month.
The logic is pretty simple: Microsoft wants to increase paid subscribers for game pass and free trials like this cheap one might deter people from subscribing. Besides, you can spend 70 dollars on a game while a trial gives you the same experience for only 1 dollar.
Some Consequences of using Call of Duty on Microsoft’s Strategy
What is at stake here isn’t just any game, it is Call of Duty. Traditionally the franchise breaks more than 20 million copies every release and the games typically cost about seventy US dollars. So if Microsoft opened the opportunity to most gamers to try new CoD titles cheaply through trials or through its Game Pass scheme, it could upset this number.
This was well highlighted in the Microsoft struggle of whether to make new Call of Duty releases part of the Game Pass. Many employees of the company have been concerned that it could decrease the profit from selling regular video games. As the user base for Game Pass continues to expand, managing the income received from subscriptions, and from direct game sales is quite delicate.
What comes after that for Xbox and Call of Duty enthusiasts?
It’s not all bad news for gamers, however; there’s a couple of newsworthy surprises coming later on. For the first time ever, all the new Call of Duty titles – starting with Black Ops 6, then Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone – will be accessible on Xbox Cloud Gaming this month. This means that a player would actually be able to jump right into the thick of things from virtually any place and at any given time even if he did not purchase the full game. Thus, whether you have ever wanted to fight in a campaign with one photo taken in a beachside cafe, you might as well have your chance to do it.
Microsoft’s decision to bring these games to Xbox Cloud Gaming is part of its broader plans after it acquired Activision Blizzard last year. But indeed, since cloud gaming is slowly moving to the mass market, Xbox can only pull more players, even those who don’t own a console at all.
Final Thoughts
Azure cloud users might also prefer what is no longer offered: the $1 Game Pass trial; For gamers, the elimination of the one-month trial to Black Ops 6 might look like a bummer. But Microsoft is all about the long game now; building a stable subscriber base, while making sure that hit titles such as Call of Duty are not cannibalizing themselves.
Thus the ‘free sample’ appears to have been removed, however, Xbox Cloud Gaming is something of a consolation for those willing to dive straight into the game of Call of Duty. It’s just a reminder that in the gaming world, nothing comes small, you need to pay to play: there are no shortcuts.
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