Xbox Game Pass' New Free Tier Is A Disaster Waiting To Happen

A new free tier of Xbox Game Pass looks like a good deal on paper, but it feels like a worrying sign of things to come.

Xbox has undergone quite an impressive transformation over the past few months with some smart business decisions that bring more value to gamers, rather than Microsoft.

A good example has been Xbox Game Pass, as Xbox slashed the price of its most expensive tier with the small caveat of no new Call of Duty games being added to the service. There’s even talk of a build-your-own subscription model being introduced later.

The newest tier though is a free 'started edition' for subscribers to Discord Nitro. It’s a nice idea but Xbox could be in danger of putting all of its eggs into one basket, again.

Xbox Joins Forces With Discord

Discord support has been on Xbox for a while now and it’s fantastic. We’re seeing more and more cross-platform games making Discord a must-have companion app when you want to connect with friends on other consoles.

It’s useful, no doubt, and Xbox is clearly looking to capitalise on it further with this new collaboration. Those who subscribe to Discord Nitro gain access to a small slice of what Xbox Game Pass has to offer, including 50 games and 10 hours of Xbox cloud-streaming.

Xbox/Discord

Xbox has teased this new tier as just the start of the two companies’ collaboration, which many are hoping to mean current Xbox Game Pass subscribers getting access to free Discord Nitro.

This all sounds great so you may be wondering, “What’s the problem?” There are a couple of problems actually.

The first is that Xbox is once again in danger of wearing itself thin with Xbox Game Pass. The price-cut was appreciated but the subscription service is still quite costly, especially when there’s no option to pay annually for a reduced price like PlayStation Plus.

Discord Nitro is also a terrible partner from a business perspective, as most Discord users hate the thing. It locks bare-minimum features behind a paywall and the promise of 50 C-tier Game Pass games isn’t going to sweeten the deal for most users.

However, the other main problem is Discord not being owned by Xbox. While Mixer felt like a poor substitute for Discord, it was at least owned by Microsoft when it was eventually shelved.

Now it’s unlikely that Discord is going to go anywhere anytime soon but it might, making Xbox’s investment into the brand a risky venture with minimal pay-off in the first place. Perhaps the smarter move would have been investing in its own communication software rather than leaving it to a third-party, as this partnership is clearly being positioned as the better alternative to Xbox’s own Party Chat system.

It’s the early days of Xbox and Discord’s partnership and hopefully it’s a fruitful one. That said, Xbox would do well to ensure Xbox Game Pass doesn’t feel too bloated again with new tiers and unwanted additions.

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