Xbox Game Pass $1 trial now only lasts two weeks

The Xbox Game Pass is still the best deal in gaming, despite a price hike making it a little less accessible. And Microsoft gets a lot of customers to try out its all-you-can-eat console and PC gaming buffet thanks to a $1 trial subscription. One American greenback gets you access to a library of hundreds of titles to download on PC or Xbox, and a huge selection that can be streamed directly to the browser, TVs, PCs, or mobile devices. But that trial period just got cut in half: from an entire month down to just two weeks.

The change in terms is visible on the Game Pass promotional page. The combined Ultimate ($16.99 a month) and PC-only ($9.99) tiers both show $1 for “your first 14 days,” where it was “your first month” as recently as last week. The offer is open only to Microsoft accounts that haven’t subscribed to Game Pass before. The $1 trial was briefly suspended earlier this year, but seems to have come back in a slightly less appealing form.

To be fair, $1 for two weeks of Game Pass is still a pretty fantastic way to check out the service. I can’t help but wonder if it was reduced to cut down on the number of people joining to play a single game, then cancel the service. Titles like Bethesda’s Hi-Fi Rush and Deathloop can be completed in a week or two even if you’re a busy working adult. And it might not be a coincidence that the change in policy is just in time for the launch of the highly-anticipated Starfield next month.

If you’re looking for the best way to stock up on Game Pass Ultimate subscription time for the least amount of money possible, you’ll want to check out PCWorld’s guide on exactly that.