Eagle-eyed Xbox One owners got their hopes up earlier this week that Microsoft may be planning free play days, timed access to certain games for Xbox Live Gold subscribers to trial new releases before they splash out for the full version, but the company dashed them yesterday when it said the promotion had appeared in error.
First spotted by Reddit user JBurton90, Xbox One owners in the US that installed the latest dashboard beta update could see an advert tile for a free day's play of Max: Curse of Brotherhood. Having already appeared as part of the company's Games with Gold promotion in June, the platformer would have been available for anyone that missed the original offer to play for twenty four hours.
However, the tile wasn't appearing on the publicly available dashboard, and Microsoft quickly removed it from the beta dash before issuing a statement.
Speaking to Kotaku, a Microsoft spokesperson said "A promotional tile for 'Max: Curse of the Brotherhood' was posted briefly on the US dash in error yesterday. We apologize for any inconvenience. We're constantly exploring different ways to offer more benefits to our Xbox Live Gold members and will keep them updated when special offers become available."
Although it seems the company isn't ready to talk about new Xbox Live features just yet, it still looks like the Free Play Days promotion could be a reality at one point. Free weekends have proven highly lucrative for publishers partnering with Valve's Steam service, with sales often skyrocketing off the back of 48hours of free play, and we wouldn't be surprised to see Microsoft attempt something similar.
It would be one step closer to the company's original vision of game rentals and give the company a slight edge over rival Sony's PS4 PS+ subscription service. Whether Microsoft is waiting for the Tokyo Game Show, which starts in September, to make the promotion official, remains to be seen.
