Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Xbox Game Pass officially opens its doors to Gold subscribers ahead of June 1

By

xbox game pass live gold subscribers
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Following a limited trial in the Xbox Insider Program, all Xbox One owners with a subscription to Xbox Live Gold can now check out Xbox Game Pass early. It is the company’s new monthly subscription service for playing 100-plus Xbox One and backward compatible Xbox 360 games. Game Pass doesn’t officially launch to the masses until June 1, thus Microsoft is now giving Gold members a sneak peek and a headstart on the 14-day free trial.

Microsoft’s subscription service may appear to compete with directly Sony’s PlayStation Now service, but the two are completely different animals. On the Sony front, gamers on the PlayStation 4 and Windows PC can stream more than 450 PS3 and PS4 games for $20 each month ($50 for three months). Meanwhile, Microsoft’s new service provides just over 100 games for $10 a month, but they are downloaded for local play on the Xbox One console.

Recommended Videos

For the Xbox One, Microsoft’s new subscription service dishes out a number of popular titles including Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Halo 5: Guardians, Mad Max, and Sunset Overdrive. So far, there are 40 titles developed for the Xbox One console in the subscription, addressing multiple genres spanning action, simulation, platforming, and so on.

Here what we have at launch:

Please enable Javascript to view this content
#IDARB Halo:
Spartan Assault		 Mega Man
Legacy Collection		 Steredenn
Blood Bowl 2 KYUB NBA 2K16 Strider
Brothers:
A Tale of Two Sons		 JumpJet Rex OlliOlli Sunset Overdrive
D4: Dark Dreams
Don’t Die		 Knight Squad Payday 2:
Crimewave Edition		 Super Mega Baseball:
Extra Innings
Devil May Cry
Definitive Edition		 Layers of Fear Pumped BMX+ Super Time Force
Defense Grid 2 Lumo Resident Evil 0 Terraria
Electronic Super Joy Mad Max Roundabout The Book of
Unwritten Tales 2
Farming Simulator
15		 Massive Chalice Saints Row IV:
Re-Elected		 The Golf Club
Gears of War:
Ultimate Edition
Day One Edition		 Max: The Curse
of Brotherhood		 ScreamRide The Swapper
Halo 5: Guardians Mega Coin Squad Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse WWE 2K16
Related

As for the Xbox 360 titles, Microsoft’s library is substantially larger with 72 games. This portion includes big hitters such as the BioShock trilogy, Borderlands, Fable III, all four Gears of War titles, LEGO Batman, Sacred 3, and XCOM: Enemy Within. There are a lot to choose from, as the library covers a wider range of genres including RPG and Action/RPG.

Here is the full Xbox 360 list:

A Kingdom
for Keflings		 De Blob 2 Joe Danger
Special Edition		 Samurai Showdown II
A World
of Keflings		 Defense Grid Joy Ride Turbo Sega Vintage Collection:
Alex Kidd & Co.
Age of Booty Dig Dug Kameo Sega Vintage Collection:
Golden Axe
Banjo-Kazooie Double Dragon Neon King of Fighters ’98
Ultimate Match		 Sega Vintage Collection:
Monster World
Banjo Kazooie:
Nuts & Bolts		 Dungeons & Dragons:
Chronicles of
Mystaria		 LEGO Batman Sega Vintage Collection:
Streets of Rage
Banjo-Tooie Fable III Metal Slug 3 Soulcalibur
Bionic Commando:
Rearmed 2		 Final Fight:
Dblimpact		 Monday Night Combat Soulcalibur II HD
BioShock Flock! Ms. Splosion Man Spelunky
BioShock 2 Galaga Legions DX MX vs. ATV Reflex Splosion Man
BioShock Infinite Gears Of War N+ Stacking
Borderlands Gears of War 2 NeoGeo
Battle Coliseum		 Tekken Tag Tournament 2
Bound by Flame Gears of War 3 Operation Flashpoint:
Dragon Rising		 The Maw
Braid Gears of War: Judgement Pac-Man CE DX+ Toy Soldiers
Capcom Arcade Cabinet GRID 2 Pac-Man Museum Toy Soldiers:
Cold War
CastleStorm Hexic 3 Perfect Dark Zero Virtua Fighter 5
Final Showdown
Comic Jumper Iron Brigade Sacred 3 Viva Pinata
Comix Zone Jetpac Refueled Sam & Max
Beyond Space and Time		 Viva Pinata:
Trouble in Paradise
Dark Void Joe Danger 2:
The Movie		 Sam & Max
Save The World		 XCOM:
Enemy Within

Note that both libraries are not set in stone, as Microsoft plans to swap out games each month so the two libraries remain somewhat fresh. Subscribers who want to continue playing a game before it is pulled from the subscription can purchase a digital copy with a 20 percent price reduction, and a 10 percent price reduction on all related add-ons.

Microsoft plans to offer a “retail” version of the Xbox Game Pass later this year.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Kevin Parrish
Kevin Parrish
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kevin started taking PCs apart in the 90s when Quake was on the way and his PC lacked the required components. Since then…
The best games on Xbox Game Pass right now (November 2024)
Key art for Hi-Fi Rush.

As the Xbox Game Pass program has grown, so has our list of the best games on Xbox Game Pass. After the launch of the Xbox Series X, Microsoft has doubled down on Game Pass, and now offers well over 350 games on that console alone. To help you through option paralysis, we rounded up the top games on Microsoft's subscription platform.

Many titles are available on Xbox and PC, and some even have cross-save support. Most of the games are available for streaming on mobile, too, as long as you have Game Pass Ultimate. The Game Pass library is also constantly changing, so check out our monthly guide for addition and removal announcements.

Read more
Xbox Game Pass is getting tons of new games following Black Ops 6 success
A cockpit view in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.

We know a lot of you are playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on Xbox right now, but the company just announced some games coming to Xbox Game Pass -- specifically the Game Pass Standard tier -- in the first half of November.

The biggest game coming to the service (and we mean that literally) is Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. Xbox and developers Asobo Studio previously reported that it will have a smaller install size than its predecessor -- 127GB versus 157GB -- but it'll also require 64GB of RAM. All of this is to help stream immense detail to the player as they fly around the world. Asobo says helped it to increase "the detail of its virtual environment by a factor of 4,000." Alongside the hyperrealistic graphics is a new career mode where you go through training and missions to become a pilot and a challenge mode where you compete against other pilots. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is coming to Game Pass at launch on November 19.

Read more
3 new Xbox Game Pass games to play this weekend (November 1-3)
xbox game pass recommendations november 1 throne and liberty

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was a monumental addition to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate last week, so no week of additions to the service will live up to that for a while. Still, that didn't stop some more games from trickling onto Microsoft's subscription service in the wake of the latest Call of Duty. In fact, the games that came to the service were quite good. If you're wondering what you should be checking out next as a Game Pass subscriber after you're done with Black Ops 6, consider trying one of these games.
Ashen
ASHEN | Gamescom 2018 Gameplay

In July, A44 released Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, and it was part of Xbox Game Pass from day one. Now, the studio has brought its previous Soulslike to the subscription service. Originally released in 2018, Ashen stood out from the crowd at the time thanks to its distinct, grayish cel-shaded look and open-world design years before Elden Ring came out. Ashen still stands as one of the best indie Soulslikes ever released, so those who have never played it before should give it a shot now that it's on Xbox Game Pass. It'll also make for an enjoyable Game Pass Soulslike double-feature with Flintlock.

Read more