$1 for a month of PC Game Pass is back
One dollar, play some good games—even on phones and tablets.
Microsoft has brought back everyone's favorite deal: $1 for a month of PC Game Pass or Game Pass Ultimate. If you're purely interested in PC, that's 100-some very high quality games available on a windows PC for a month, and then a bunch of EA games as well, since PC Game Pass also includes an EA Play membership.
Perhaps an even sweeter deal, for some, is that Game Pass Ultimate is also on the $1 for a month kick. That means it's both PC and Console, for those of you who own an Xbox of some sort as well. The real trick to try out something you might otherwise be loath to pay for is that Game Pass Ultimate also gives you access to Xbox's Cloud Gaming beta, a phone and tablet app that lets you stream a surprising variety of games to a phone or tablet. You can just bluetooth a controller on that phablet joint at your bedside and you're good to go, and a lot of them are equipped to cross-save from your PC or console or whatever.
Some people love it, some hate it, but Cloud Gaming might be for you and $1 is a very low price to try it out. We don't currently know how long the deal will last, so if you're interested then snap it up. Summer is, after all, the perfect time for
“We're always evaluating marketing promotions for new Game Pass members. Players can expect to see us provide different offers that will shift in duration and value," said a Microsoft spokesperson in response to an email inquiry. Which is to say: They're not telling how long the deal will last either.
Good games on PC Game Pass aren't hard to find. You've got all the Halo you can eat, for shooter fans. The Amnesia games for horror-heads. Hardcore strategy players might enjoy Age of Empires or Amazing Cultivation Simulator or Battletech. Not hard to go further afield, either, with games like Arcade Paradise, ARK, and. Astroneer. That was a lazy list too. You'll notice I barely left the "A" section of the alphabetical listings.
You can find PC Game Pass for $1, for a limited time, on Microsoft's store. PC Game Pass is $10 a month after the $1 promotion, while Game Pass Ultimate is $17.
The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.