Xbox Game Pass’ Recent Absence Ends 2025 With a Whimper Instead of a Bang

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Xbox Game Pass‘s presentation at The Game Awards 2025 focused on games already available, but didn’t reveal anything about what’s coming next. None of the games shown are confirmed to be added to the service. Recent changes to Game Pass have been met with mostly negative feedback, and the lack of news about future games suggests potential challenges for the service in 2026.

Launched in 2017, Xbox Game Pass has become a major attraction for Microsoft’s Xbox consoles, giving subscribers access to a large library of games for a monthly fee. As of July, the service had around 37 million users and remains incredibly popular – with 15 games nominated for The Games Awards 2025 already available through the Game Pass subscription.

Upcoming Games for Game Pass

  • Aphelion
  • Armatus
  • At Fate’s End
  • Awaysis
  • Beast of Reincarnation
  • Beastro
  • Clockwork Revolution
  • Crowsworn
  • Darkwood 2
  • Denshattack!
  • Echo Generation 2
  • Erosion
  • Fable
  • Forza Horizon 6
  • Freestyle Football 2
  • Gear of War: E-Day
  • High on Life 2
  • Menace
  • MIO: Memories in Orbit
  • Mixtape
  • Nirvana Noir
  • Nova Roma
  • Outbound
  • Persona 4 Revival
  • Planet of Lana 2: Children of the Leaf
  • Raji: Kaliyuga
  • Replaced
  • Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy
  • Roadside Research
  • Sledding Game
  • Sleight of Hand
  • Snap & Grab
  • Subnautica 2
  • Super Meat Boy 3D
  • TCG Card Shop Simulator
  • There Are Not Ghosts At The Grand
  • Tropico 7
  • Vampire Crawlers
  • Vapor World
  • Wildekin
  • Witchbrook

During The Game Awards 2025, Xbox Game Pass revealed a two-minute trailer showcasing its games. Set to Johnny Cash’s “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky,” the trailer follows a janitor as he cleans rooms themed around popular titles. He gets into comical situations, like accidentally turning off gravity in The Outer Worlds 2, sweeping dirt from Minecraft, and playfully waving a zombie hand in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. The trailer also includes nods to the Fallout series, even using a similar version of the cowboy song from Fallout 76.

Adelaide’s Lucky Ride by wreckitrenee

Beyond that one video, Xbox Game Pass didn’t get much attention during the presentation, which might worry some subscribers. The featured games included titles like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 that launched directly on Game Pass, but most of the games highlighted weren’t made by Microsoft themselves. This shows how much the service relies on partnerships with other game developers and publishers. There was a brief mention of Grounded 2, developed by Microsoft-owned Obsidian Entertainment, but it’s currently in early access. While Microsoft bought Bethesda in 2021, popular Fallout games like Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 were released long before that – in 2015 and 2018 respectively.

Xbox Game Pass has added many games in 2025, but recent events suggest potential challenges. Fans reacted negatively to an October announcement of a significant price increase – the Ultimate tier’s monthly fee rose about 50% to $29.99. Although this came with access to around 50 new games, including those from a partnership with Ubisoft+, many subscribers felt the price hike was unfair during tough economic times. Reports indicate numerous people cancelled their subscriptions as a result.

Even though no announcements were made at The Game Awards, around 40 games are currently scheduled to be added to Game Pass in 2026. Two of these, MIO: Memories In Orbit (January 20th) and Nova Roma (January 22nd, PC only), will be available on Game Pass Ultimate starting in January. Other highly anticipated titles coming to Game Pass in 2026 include Fable, a remake of Halo 1, Forza Horizon 6, and Gears of War: E-Day.

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2025-12-13 04:05