Xbox and Discord have now officially unveiled the new starter edition of Xbox Game Pass available to Discord Nitro subscribers at no extra cost.
Today’s reveal comes a month after newly-installed Xbox boss Asha Sharma confirmed the companies were working closer together than ever on a fresh offering for fans. Days later, the first mentions of an “Xbox Game Pass Starter Edition” then began to pop up.
Both Xbox and Discord still refer to this Game Pass flavor as a “starter edition” while avoiding making the label official (such as like Xbox Game Ultimate).
Still, the slimmed down offering is what fans had been expecting: a catalog of 50+ classic games, with more titles added over time, at no additional cost. These include Grounded, Stardew Valley, Hades, DayZ and Cities Skylines, as well as Dishonored 2, Fallout 4, Gears of War 5 and Doom Eternal. This appears to align the package with the smaller-scale catalog available to Xbox Game Pass Essential members.
Other recent changes include the ability to directly jump into Game Pass games your Discord friends might be playing or streaming. Game Pass subscribers will soon also get 250 Discord Orbs and a 1.2x multiplier when completing Quests.
“Most of us have spent money on something, played it for a couple weeks, then watched it sit in our library,” Discord spokesperson Lu Zhang wrote in a blog post today. “Game Pass removes that friction.
“The starter edition of Game Pass also comes with 10 hours of cloud gaming, so you can stream games right away on more devices. Whether you’re into survival, strategy, co-op, or just want to farm in peace, there’s something in there for you.”
As part of a flurry of changes, Sharma previously announced an immediate price drop for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Game Pass on PC, while removing new Call of Duty games from the subscription service at launch. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate has gone from $29.99 per month to $22.99 per month, while PC Game Pass has been reduced from $16.49 per month to $13.99 per month.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
