At E3 2021, Microsoft showed off a whole bunch of upcoming games slated for the Xbox Game Pass library. In addition to first-party tentpoles like Halo Infinite, the service will also receive a number of smaller titles in the coming months. Highlights include Sable, 12 Minutes, and a realistic snowboarding sim called Shredders. But none of those games are available just yet, and the Game Pass machine must keep chugging along.
Here’s everything coming to Xbox Game Pass in the next few weeks:
June 23
- Worms Rumble (Console, Cloud, PC)
June 24
- Iron Harvest (PC)
- Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered (Console and PC, via EA Play)
- Prodeus, via Game Preview (PC)
July 1
- Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (Cloud)
- Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling (Cloud, Console, PC)
- Gang Beasts (Cloud, Console, PC)
- Immortal Realms: Vampire Wars (Cloud, Console, PC)
- Limbo (Cloud, Console, PC)
As always, whenever Microsoft adds to the Game Pass library, it also prunes things somewhat. This time around, some terrific games are leaving, including Outer Wilds—a sci-fi exploration game and a perennial Kotaku favorite. Some fighting games are going by the wayside as well. And fans of Monster Hunter World will need to find a new game that allows for gazillions of hours of kaiju-busting. All of the following will leave the Game Pass library on June 30:
- Battle Chasers: Nightwar (Cloud, Console, PC)
- Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite (Cloud, Console, PC)
- Mistover (PC)
- Monster Hunter World (Cloud, Console)
- Out of the Park Baseball 21 (PC)
- Outer Wilds (Cloud, Console)
- Soulcalibur VI (Console)
- The Messenger (Cloud, Console, PC)
Xbox Game Pass, for those who don’t know, is Microsoft’s games-on-demand service. It’s $10 a month. The $15/monthly “Ultimate” tier, meanwhile, grants you a number of perks, including an Xbox Live Gold subscription and bundled-in access to the EA Play library.
DISCUSSION
Not exactly a killer list, though I am glad to see Iron Harvest arrive on PC; I’m 99% my PC couldn’t handle it, but it makes me hopeful the eventual Xbox port will hit console GamePass as well. (‘Eventual’ being a key word, there: that port is climbing up the ranks of ‘promised Xbox port that may or may not ever materialize’, though it has a way to go to dethrone Phoenix Point.)
Still, not surprised to see a relatively low-key list, as I assume most of their GamePass budget for this month went to Yakuza: Like a Dragon and... errr, that D&D one that seems to have some serious issues at the moment. I’m about halfway through Yakuza (I think? Chapter 8), and, as it’s my first Yakuza ever, I’ve been surprised by my reaction to it: I’m significantly more engaged in the narrative* than I thought, and somewhat unimpressed with the turn-based combat system, despite the fact that’s what got me to try it out in the first place. Granted, it’s their first foray into that sort of game, so it might improve with later entries, but so far in this one, it’s just... fine, basically. There’s not really a lot to it, even though it has stuff - like the Jobs system - that really should make for an engaging combat system.
*Really, my only issue with the narrative is ye olde ‘ludonarrative dissonance’ - especially in the earlier chapters, where the story focuses on empathy and the plight of the homeless... and then you get to roam around the city, as a homeless, possibly mental ill person yourself, and you can’t go five feet without beating the absolute shit out of random passers-by. Which makes you... pretty much a nightmare version of exactly the sort of person the game’s trying to convince you homeless people aren’t. A minor issue, of course, but still kind of saps the narrative of some weight all the same.