Bad news, folks: Microsoft's largesse is no more, as The Verge (open in new tab) reports that the company is ending its long-running and very compelling $1 Game Pass Ultimate trial (open in new tab).

Microsoft is going to end its long-running and very compelling $1 Game Pass Ultimate trial (opens in new tab).

Microsoft has not revealed why it is ending the long-available $1 trial now, but told The Verge that it is "considering various marketing promotions for new members in the future. It is quite possible that the trial will be replaced in the near future by other schemes designed to entice players into a $15/month/£11 game pass.

We have contacted Microsoft about their choice to end the trial and will update this article if we hear back.

Game Pass has fallen short of Microsoft's target for two years in a row: subscriber growth for FY2022 (which ended last June 30) was 28.07% (open in new tab), which sounds pretty good until you realize that Microsoft was targeting 72.88% growth for the same year The same will be true for FY2021, with FY2020 being the last time Game Pass exceeded Microsoft's growth projections.

In other words, the $1 Game Pass trial, which tempts players to try the service before locking them in for months or years, may not have done its job, and we expect Microsoft to do a better job of keeping subscriptions, some decided to reorient its strategy around a new offer.

Furthermore, Microsoft is operating in a very different context than when the $1 Game Pass trial was created. The service surpassed 25 million subscriptions in January 2022 (opens in new tab), but Xbox boss Phil Spencer said growth on the console has slowed (opens in new tab). If Game Pass wants to get back on target, something needs to happen, and that something is, yes, the availability of Game Pass Ultimate for $1 a month.

I think I have enjoyed the $1 trial of Game Pass on many occasions. For that reason, I'm sad to see Game Pass go; I'm sure Microsoft is working hard to come up with a replacement offer for Game Pass, but it won't be as tasty as the old one.