It's not really a drastic change, as this offer only affects those who are new to Game Pass Ultimate. It is highly plausible that this was done to combat those who subscribe to Game Pass via the Gold workaround.
For the uninitiated, any number of Xbox Live Gold subscription months can be easily converted into Game Pass Ultimate months by purchasing one month of the latter, and users were getting that month for $1 to convert their Gold duration instead of paying $15 per month as they should.
This workaround is also cost-effective because Xbox Live Gold is available as a 3-month subscription on the Microsoft store for $25 or as an annual subscription in certain retail stores, while Ultimate is only available as a monthly subscription, making it cheaper to buy Gold and convert it than to pay monthly for Ultimate.
Nonetheless, this workaround is still available, except that existing users will now pay $15 to convert to Ultimate, and new users will pay the same amount.
The loophole here is that it's possible for users to create specific accounts for the purpose of nailing that purchase for cheap every time the duration ends, and then recycle the process with new accounts or even sell those accounts to other users. However, it's important to note this the $1 offer mainly started as a promotion, as Game Pass was still in its infancy when the offer was conceived.
Today, everyone knows about Game Pass and its benefits, and even Xbox CEO Phil Spencer has said before that the Game Pass subscription base won't get any bigger than it already is, which might justify the offer's removal.
Microsoft is currently gearing up to close the Activision-Blizzard acquisition, which is expected to close on June 30, 2023, the end of Microsoft's third fiscal quarter.
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Source: https://www.dualshockers.com/microsoft-quietly-cancels-game-pass-ultimate-offer/
"Microsoft Quietly Cancels $1 Xbox Game Pass Subscription Offer" :: Login/Create an Account :: 4 comments