What you need to know
- Microsoft's new Xbox Game Pass "Standard" tier just launched, deprecating the old "Console" tier.
- Xbox Game Pass "Standard" includes Xbox Live Gold multiplayer (also known as Game Pass Core), but no longer comes with day one games.
- Console users will be grandfathered in as long as they maintain their subscription, and will retain day one Xbox games in perpetuity.
- Today, users noticed that Xbox Game Pass "Standard" is actually missing a ton of games that previously existed in the Xbox Game Pass Console tier, including first-party heavy hitters like Starfield, Forza, and Diablo 4.
- It seems like a tacit admission that Xbox Game Pass of yesteryear wasn't business viable.
Earlier this summer, Microsoft confirmed that Xbox Game Pass is changing for the worse.
Xbox Game Pass has long been the key differentiator for Microsoft's gaming business, offering an alternative subscription-based store against Steam on PC, and offering heaps of value on console against PlayStation with its day-one games pledge. That covenant has been undone now, though.
RELATED: Xbox Game Pass FAQ: Tiers, pricing, and more explained
Now, only users on the $19.99 Xbox Game Pass Ultimate tier will get day one games on console, with PC users retaining them at $11.99. The big change is to the basic "Console" tier, which has now essentially been removed for new users. The new Standard tier will start at $14.99 for new customers, and will include the Xbox Live Gold (Game Pass Core) multiplayer paywall specifically for premium games like Call of Duty Black Ops 6. Crucially, though, it won't actually include Call of Duty Black Ops 6.
Previously, Xbox Game Pass' promise was to offer day-one Microsoft-owned titles into the service. Games like Starfield, Forza Horizon 5, Flight Simulator, and many other heavy hitters dropped straight into Xbox Game Pass Console, PC Game Pass, and Ultimate, granting the service far better value on paper than competing options. Xbox Game Pass Standard no longer guarantees day-one access to Xbox games, meaning the hotly anticipated Call of Duty Black Ops 6 will be available only to PC Game Pass users, and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers. Despite paying more than PC Game Pass users, Xbox Game Pass "Standard" members will not get access to said games.
To compound matters, it was discovered recently (via Forbes) that Xbox Game Pass Standard has removed access to a wide variety of games that are currently active on the deprecated Xbox Game Pass "Console" tier, which is only available for users who maintain a subscription. If you swap out your subscription to gain access to Xbox Live Gold, which isn't available on Xbox Game Pass "Console," then you'll lose access to a huge list of titles.
The list of Game Pass titles missing from the 'Standard' tier is as follows:
- Age of Mythology: Retold Standard Edition
- Another Crab's Treasure
- Botany Manor
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
- Core Keeper
- Creatures of Ava
- Diablo 4
- Dungeons Of Hinterberg
- Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
- Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn
- Flock
- Forza Motorsport
- Galacticare
- Go Mecha Ball
- Harold Halibut
- Hauntii
- Heavy Weapon
- Humanity
- Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
- Little Kitty, Big City
- Magical Delicacy
- MLB: The Show 24
- Neon White
- Octopath Traveler 2
- Open Roads
- Payday 3
- PlateUp!
- Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders
- Rolling Hills: Make Sushi, Make Friends
- Sea of Solitude
- Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2
- Slime Rancher 2
- SpiderHeck
- Star Trucker
- Starfield
- Still Wakes the Deep
- Tchia
- The Case of the Golden Idol
- The Rewinder
- Turnip Boy Robs a Bank
- You Suck at Parking Complete Edition
Now you could argue that some of these third-party titles, such as Capcom's Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, may be licensing related. If they had contracts in place for specific tiers of Xbox Game Pass, not including this new "Standard" tier that didn't exist at the time of signing, it makes sense that they might no longer be available. However, some of the first-party Xbox games seem wholly arbitrary. Removing offline games like Hellblade 2 and Starfield, which likely aren't going to sell gangbusters if removed, makes very little sense. You could argue that it would be better value for users who want to play online multiplayer games like Diablo 4 to simply move to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate anyway rather than paying for separate multiplayer and Game Pass subscription access, but it has blindsided some users who weren't expecting to see games pulled from the service retroactively.
I couldn't find any information out there to suggest that Microsoft hinted that this was coming, but I could be mistaken there. If you knew about this beforehand, do hit the comments and let me know where you saw it.
Xbox's strategy is evolving at a breakneck pace
Microsoft's Xbox gaming division is in a weird place right now. Faced with broad collapse of interest in its Xbox console hardware, and suffering from the industry-wide reduction in playtime hours, Microsoft has joined other major publishers in laying off staff and increasing prices. Sony set the internet ablaze this week with its PS5 Pro $699.99 price point, and Microsoft followed up with the announcement of hundreds of layoffs within its gaming division.
To find new users, Microsoft has begun supporting its arch rival PlayStation by launching games on the PS5, despite previous claims to the FTC that Sony's platform fees would be spent on marketing deals that harm Xbox. Microsoft hinted that Black Myth Wukong skipped out on Xbox owing to an exclusivity deal with PlayStation, rather than the previously stated "technical" problems. Microsoft also announced previous Xbox exclusive Indiana Jones for PlayStation 5 at Gamescom, in a way that overshadowed the game itself.
RELATED: Xbox's strategy is damaging its best exclusive — its community
The pace of "change" at Xbox, mostly in negative contexts, is undermining all of the good will and momentum the brand had following the Xbox Series X|S launch. This latest own-goal is unlikely to help uplift Xbox's battered image right now. Increasingly, you have to wonder if Microsoft actually cares.
