Once upon a time, Microsoft began offering the trial for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $1, and now it’s bringing that same deal to the new Xbox Game Pass Standard tier. It’s an easy way to test out the service to see if you really feel like subscribing to it. This trial has always been one of the better elements that made Game Pass such a good value. There are other things to love about the service, of course. But, the $1 trial period provided an easy entry point for people on the fence.
The cost isn’t too high as pretty much anyone should be available to afford to toss a buck at Microsoft. And if you don’t like what you see, you can always cancel. Microsoft announced the details of the new Game Pass Standard tier $1 trial on the official Xbox Wire blog (spotted by The Verge). The announcement also coincides with all the Xbox announcements coming out of GamesCom this week. This includes a confirmation of Indiana Jones launching for PS5 sometime in the Spring of next year.
The $1 Xbox Game Pass Standard trial is for Insiders only at the moment
Xbox Game Pass in its new Standard tier essentially takes over the initial price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate from a while back when it was still $15. That was at least two years ago. Microsoft then changed the price of the Ultimate tier to $17, and more recently to $20. The new Standard tier cuts out the ability to play games in the cloud and it also axes the day one games. There’s also no EA Play membership included.
As for the $1 trial, this isn’t rolling out to all Xbox users. It’s currently starting testing with Xbox Insiders only. Likely because the Standard tier isn’t fully rolled out. The good news is that you can sign up to be an Xbox Insider if you’re interested. You can do this from the Insider app in the Microsoft Store.
Standard tier subscription renewals will remain at $1 for the test period
Microsoft clearly wants people to test its new Game Pass tier because it’s offering continued $1 renewal prices. Meaning, if you decide to renew the plan it’ll continue to be $1 per month. The company confirms that the subscription price will stay at $1 for the duration of the test period. Microsoft doesn’t say how long the test period is though, so you’ll want to keep an eye on that particular detail.
After the test period ends, renewals will go up to the $15 price point per month. As for an actual launch, Microsoft says it’ll happen “in the coming months.”
