A new tier of Xbox Game Pass called "Starter Edition" has surfaced in leaked screenshots, and it appears designed to bundle directly into Discord Nitro subscriptions. The package would deliver titles like Stardew Valley and Fallout 4 to Discord's existing $9.99 monthly plan without raising the price.
The leak originated from Discord Previews, an account that monitors unreleased Discord features. Screenshots posted on April 23 show a bundled setup where Discord Nitro subscribers gain access to over 50 games from the Game Pass catalog, up to 10 hours of cloud game streaming per month, and Xbox Rewards, all included in the standard Nitro subscription.
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What the leaked Starter Edition actually includes
The "Starter Edition" label suggests a scaled-back version of the full Game Pass library rather than the complete Ultimate package. Redphx, an xCloud open-source developer, identified new code indicating the tier would feature third-party games alongside Microsoft's first-party catalog. The existing Game Pass Essential tier, which this Starter Edition appears modeled after, focuses on established catalog entries. Expect games like Hades and Warhammer: Vermintide 2 instead of day-one releases.
Stardew Valley and Fallout 4 are the only two titles confirmed from the leak, which makes sense as a headline pairing: one enduring indie that continues drawing millions of players years post-launch, and one Bethesda RPG that gained fresh momentum after its TV series adaptation. Both fit naturally into a broad, entry-level library.
The bigger picture behind the Microsoft-Discord deal
This leak doesn't stand alone. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma met with Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters last month to explore bundling Game Pass with other subscription platforms. Days before this leak, Microsoft teased a new Discord partnership without revealing details, which sparked speculation that Nitro might merge into Game Pass. The leaked materials suggest the opposite: Game Pass content flowing into Nitro instead.
The timing also follows Microsoft's decision to remove day-and-date Call of Duty releases from Game Pass Ultimate to lower that tier's price. Sharma's internal memo, released the same day as the Discord leak, emphasized daily active users as the company's core growth metric. Bundling even a lightweight Game Pass variant with a platform that has hundreds of millions of registered users directly targets that goal.
Microsoft's relationship with Discord adds useful context. The company held serious acquisition talks with Discord for roughly $10 billion in 2021 before those discussions fell apart. Microsoft then pivoted to the $70 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition. A deep Nitro integration offers a cheaper route to rebuild that partnership.
What this means for Nitro subscribers right now
Neither Microsoft nor Discord has officially acknowledged any of this. Nitro currently costs $9.99 per month, and whether a Game Pass bundle would raise that price or stay flat as a subscriber acquisition move remains unclear. Game Pass Core alone runs $14.99 monthly, so even a stripped-down version at no extra cost to Nitro would deliver real value for subscribers who haven't already locked into a Game Pass tier.
For players paying for Nitro primarily for Discord features like animated avatars and higher file upload caps, suddenly getting 50+ games through the same subscription changes what that $9.99 delivers. Cloud streaming access is also included, meaning you wouldn't need a console or high-end PC to play these games.
Microsoft is clearly testing how far it can expand Game Pass as a brand across platforms it doesn't control. Watch for an official announcement from either company in the coming weeks, and check our latest gaming news for updates as this story develops. For a broader look at what Game Pass tiers currently offer, browse our latest reviews to see how the library stacks up.
