Xbox Discord partnership leaked, Nitro includes access to Game Pass 'starter edition'

Discord Nitro will soon come with a lighter version of Xbox Game Pass, offering access to 50 games.

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Xbox is teaming up with Discord to bundle services together in a cooperative partnership. New leaks say that Discord Nitro subscribers will gain access to a new special Game Pass tier called the Starter Edition. If you've been closely following the Game Pass stories, then the Starter Edition is the official name for the tier codenamed Triton, which was believed to be a first-party only offering at the time.

This so-called Xbox Game Pass Starter Edition offers 50 games from the all-you-can-play subscription service, including a smattering of catalog first-party games like Fallout 4, Elder Scrolls Online, Gears of War, Doom Eternal, and Dishonored, as well as hit indies like Hades and Stardew Valley.

A variety of third party games will also be available on the service, as revealed by the leaked image and reinforced by Xbox dataminer redphx.

Just yesterday, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said that one core goals for Microsoft is to "fortify Game Pass with clear differentiation and sustainable economics."

On the surface, the Starter Edition seems similar to Microsoft's $9.99/month Game Pass Essential subscription tier. Without, of course, paid multiplayer, but Discord's key demographic is on PC where online gameplay is always free.

Discord Nitro currently costs $9.99/month, and it's unclear if the company will offer some sort of new subscription tier to coincide with this partnership.

Discord is also eyeing an IPO, so all of these things may be lining up to help punctuate the big occasion when Discord goes public. Another interesting thing to note: Discord is expanding its footprint with advertising, but in an engaging way via quests and interactive experiences, and we may see this kind of business model splash back into Xbox's ecosystem.

Remember that Microsoft is currently planning an ad-supported Xbox Cloud Gaming subscription tier, and Discord may help teach the company how to pull this off--it also helps that Discord's new CEO used to run Candy Crush at King.

Moving the older catalog games into a digital vault sounds like the right way to treat Game Pass, especially these lower-cost options. As I wrote in my opinion piece, I believe Game Pass' biggest problem is the front-line devaluation of first-party content. If a new game launches into Game Pass day one, it faces fierce competition internally because it goes up against popular Game Pass titles like Call of Duty, and that competition is also external, as the developers and publishers have to factor in a potential loss for upfront sales due to the nature of the service itself.