Xbox Game Pass goes free at last – AAA games, cloud gaming, and Xbox rewards in a brand-new “Starter Tier”
Quick Summary
A free Xbox Game Pass tier has leaked, with a full announcement expected soon.
The Xbox Game Pass Starter Tier will reportedly be free with a Discord Nitro subscription, and will include access to more than 50 games, Xbox Cloud Gaming and more.
The radical rethink of Xbox Game Pass continues as a brand-new tier has been discovered and could launch very soon. The best news is that it’s free.
First found in code (via Windows Central) and since reaffirmed by the Discord Previews X feed, the Xbox Game Pass Starter Tier looks to be a completely free add-on to the Nitro monthly subscription. That usually costs $9.99 / £9.99 per month.
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Membership expands your experience on the gaming chat and community service, with additional features, including custom profiles, 500MB uploads, and HD video streaming. And soon you can add Xbox Game Pass to the list.
You will be able to find details on how to activate game pass on your Nitro home, once the feature rolls out. pic.twitter.com/OOgT1NBGYnApril 23, 2026
Xbox boss Asha Sharma has recently announced changes to Xbox Game Pass pricing, including a major price drop for the Ultimate tier. It was recently slashed from $29.99 / £22.99 per month to $22.99 / £16.99 – correcting a mistake introduced at the tail end of last year.
She also posted on her X feed that the company will continue to look at new ways to “evolve” Game Pass: “We’ll keep learning and evolving Game Pass to better match what matters to players,” it read.
This seems to be the next step in the evolution.
Hopefully, it’ll also be the first tie-in with a partner. Imagine getting the Xbox Starter Tier with a new Samsung TV, or another brand that supports Xbox Cloud Gaming. That way you could play top games from the get-go at no extra cost – all you’d need is a controller.
And considering that Windows Central lists some of the included games as Doom Eternal, Gears 5, Halo 5: Guardians, and Fallout 4, you can’t say fairer than get.
