Xbox Game Pass and Discord tier leaks

Just as Xbox surprisingly lowered prices on its Game Pass Ultimate tier we have news of a new potential offering. This one comes via the Microsoft and Discord partnership that gives Discord Nitro subscribers access to a version of Game Pass dubbed Starter Edition.

The X profile Discord Previews discovered the new tier that seems to be separate from the Game Pass Ultimate deal that already exists. The Starter Edition appears to give you access to more than 50 games in the Game Pass library, plus 10 hours of Xbox Cloud streaming.

Additionally, you can earn Xbox rewards that can be put toward games, DLC, and gift cards.

It's not clear exactly what games make up the Starter Edition library. However, in the leaked art from Discord Previews you can see titles like Dishonored 2, Doom, Fallout 4, Gears 5, and Stardew Valley.

Earlier this week, new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced a new collaboration between Game Pass and Discord. She even teased that fans would "start to see some code in the wild" (per IGN).

"We're teaming up again as we continue to make Game Pass more flexible for our players. Some of you might start to see some code in the wild, and we will share more details with you all soon!" she wrote on X.

How it works

Currently, if you sign up for Game Pass Ultimate, you get a free month of Discord Nitro, which costs $10 a month. Nitro gives you perks like custom profiles, HD video streaming and different app themes in the chat service.

Per Discord Previews, the Starter Edition comes free for Nitro subscribers. It's not clear if Starter Edition will only be for Nitro subscribers or if anyone could sign up for that tier. We're also not sure if it'll be a new fourth Game Pass tier or replace one of the existing ones.

Beyond lowering the Ultimate tier price from $29.99/month to $22.99/month, this week Sharma released her vision for Xbox going forward.

Part of lowering the Game Pass price includes not putting new Call of Duty games on the service at launch. In her manifesto post, Sharma suggests "windowing" Xbox first-party games instead of putting them in Game Pass at launch. She mentioned that the company is reevaluating Xbox's approach to exclusivity, which suggests that Xbox exclusive games make a return.

The post says the goal is for Xbox to "fortify Game Pass with clear differentiation and sustainable economics."

A new Discord partnership appears to be the next step in that direction.

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