Microsoft is launching its Xbox Game Pass Standard tier today. After briefly testing it with Xbox Insiders last month, the new $14.99 per month Game Pass Standard subscription is launching with the usual Game Pass library for Xbox and online console multiplayer access,

Xbox Game Pass has long been the key differentiator for Microsoft's gaming business, offering an alternative subscription-based store against Steam on PC, and offering heaps of value on console against PlayStation with its day-one games pledge. That covenant has been undone now, though.

Xbox's new Game Pass Standard tier, which replaced the existing console tier and excludes day one launches onto the service, is missing much more than that. Massive first-party games that were previously used to sell the service like Starfield, Diablo 4, and Hellblade 2 are nowhere to be found among the subscription's strange middle tier offerings.

Today's the day for the new tier of Xbox Game Pass known as Xbox Game Pass Standard! Microsoft has begun rolling out this membership option publicly, giving everyone the ability to sign up at a price of £10.99 / $14.99 per-month.

There is another caveat, that Microsoft has seemingly arbitrarily picked a few dozen games, many of them big titles, that are not included in Xbox Game Pass Standard,