We told you just yesterday A standard subscription plan has finally been added to Game Passwhich Microsoft announced a few months ago, which in short takes over the previous price of the Ultimate level subscription, but with an important limitation that we have already informed you about, which is that waiting for the arrival of the latest released titles can continue indefinitely. A year or in some cases maybe more compared to what has been one of the keys to the success of the service so far.

availability of games from the date of their launch, It’s always been one of the big draws of Game PassMicrosoft’s game subscription service, committed to providing its players with a premium experience. In my case, it’s true that I’ve lost count of all the games I tried (even if it was first contact) during my time as a subscriber, on the day they were released. I’m not saying this is the main value of the service, but in my opinion (and I know many other people think the same) it was one of its strong points.

So, We could already see the first consequences of the implementation of the new standard planand that we can summarize in it more than notable absences such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Diablo IV and Starfield. And yes, indeed, in all cases these are “in-house” titles, that is, from developers belonging to Microsoft, which are therefore exactly the ones over which the company has more control, and therefore have more facilities to achieve all levels from the first day.

That in itself is a handicap, but the situation is worse because, as we can see in Kotaku, a closer reading of the description of the new level, it leaves the door open for some games to never reach the standard Game Pass plan. This is a thought-provoking sentence:

«New games available day one with Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass will not be available immediately with Game Pass Standard and it could be added to the library later. This can take up to 12 months or more and will vary from title to title.«.

You will see that I have bolded a specific part and we need to focus especially on the “could be added” ie. when choosing a conditional. If it was clear that they would be added, we would expect “to be added” to be there. Why is the conditional used if not because it is the most appropriate verb form to express that something may happen (and therefore that it may not happen)?

If Microsoft decided that not all games would qualify for the standard Game Pass plan, it could encourage some Game Pass subscribers to upgrade to the Ultimate plan, but It also seems likely that they will lose many more along the way as well (or more) who aren’t willing to give up some games, especially if it’s not just temporarily.