PUBG On Xbox One Doesn't Have A Free Trial, And That's A Bummer

When Microsoft announced its Early Access-style Game Preview program for Xbox One in 2015, the company said every game would have a free trial available. Considering Game Preview titles are unfinished, it was nice to hear Microsoft would allow you to try games that could have bugs and other unfortunate oddities without having to spend any money.

The Game Preview program's biggest release to date--PUBG--came this week, but unfortunately, there is no free trial available. Microsoft's reasoning for this may leave some unsatisfied.

A Microsoft spokesperson told WindowsCentral that PUBG doesn't have a one-hour free trial available because the company is "prioritizing server stability" for the game instead. Microsoft said it may add a trial at a later date "once player concurrency and server stability are optimized." Further details will be shared at a later date. We have followed up with Microsoft in an attempt to get more details on the matter.

It is a big bummer that PUBG does not have a free trial, especially now that we know the game is in somewhat rough shape on Xbox One. Not having a free trial may give some the impression that Microsoft wanted to beef up early sales.

Given that PUBG is unfinished, it was never expected to be completely optimized at launch. The whole idea of Early Access/Game Preview is to give players the option to play early if they are OK with the fact that they may encounter bugs and other problems. Still, a free trial would have been nice. It is worth noting that the PC edition, which is still in Early Access, also ran into issues.

PUBG on Xbox One is already off to a hot start, it seems, with the playerbase reportedly reaching as high as 400,000 players or more after just a day. For more, be sure to check out our Beginner's Guide for getting started in PUBG. In other news, if you're playing on PC, the game is expected to leave Steam Early Access later this month.