Xbox confirms Game Pass tiers Standard will wait "up to 12 months+" for first-party games
Up until now, it was not been clear how long Standard subscribers would have to wait
Microsoft has confirmed that subscribers who pay for its Standard tiers of its Game Pass subscription service may not be able to play titles from its first-party studios "up to 12 months or more" after release.
Clarifying the substantive changes it made to its Xbox Game Pass service last month, Microsoft confirmed in a recent Xbox Wire post that only the $12/m PC tier and the $20/m Ultimate tier will benefit from EA Play membership and access to Xbox's "day one titles."
Instead, subscribers to Core ($10/m) and the upcoming Standard ($15/m) tier will get a curated catalogue of 25 "high-quality games on console" and "hundreds of high-quality games on console", respectively.
All console tiers will get online console membership, and all four tiers receive "member deals and discounts."
Up until this point, it had not been clear how long Standard subscribers would have to wait to play the "day one" first-party releases that used to be included in Game Pass.
"Some games coming to Game Pass Ultimate (day one games or other game entries) will not be immediately available with Game Pass Standard and may be added to the library at a future date (can be up to 12 months or more and will vary by title)," wrote senior community lead of Xbox Game Pass, Megan Spurr.
"We’ll continue to share with all Game Pass members when games are being added and available to play for each plan."
Microsoft has still yet to confirm when its new Standard Game Pass tier will be available.
Correction: This article previously said the wait for first-party titles applies to both Standard and Core. Microsoft has since clarified the Core offering focuses on the curated library of around 25 titles, updated two to three times per year