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

Xbox Game Pass in September is all about sims, strategy, and star truckers

By
Key art for Age of Mythology: Retold.
Xbox Game Studios

If you like sims, strategy games, or driving various vehicles, you’re in luck with Xbox Game Pass in September. Xbox announced the games coming to its subscription service in the first half of the month, and it includes a seemingly random, smaller list of releases that hones in on a couple of specific player types.

The big addition from an Xbox perspective is Age of Mythology: Retold, which is hitting the platform at launch on September 4. The real-time strategy game is published by Xbox Game Studios, so it’s of course making a day-one appearance. It’s developed in part by World’s Edge, the makers behind the Age of Empires series, but instead of real-world armies, you’ll pit mythological figures against each other.

Recommended Videos

Many of the other games releasing on Xbox Game Pass this month are based around transportation in some way, which may or may not have been intentional. First up is Star Trucker, a sci-fi trucker sim that places you in the front seat of a big rig in space. Then, we have Riders Republic, a Ubisoft-developed extreme sports sandbox game. If that weren’t enough, train fans have Train Sim World 5, which lets you drive trains across multiple cities.

Here’s everything that’s coming and going from Xbox Game Pass for the first half of September.

  • Star Trucker (cloud, console, PC): September 3
  • Age of Mythology: Retold (cloud, PC, Xbox Series X/S): September 4
  • Expeditions: A MudRunner Game (cloud, console, PC): September 5
  • Riders Republic (cloud, console, PC): September 11
  • Train Sim World 5 (cloud, console, PC): September 17

DLC and game updates

  • Dead by Daylight: Castlevania: Out now
  • Ark: Survival Ascended Aberration: September 5
  • Ark: Survival Ascended – Bob’s Tall Tales: Steampunk Ascent: September 5

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Perks (all available now)

  • Predecessor: Ready for Action Bundle
  • Metaball: Police Pack
  • EA Sports NHL 24: Starter Pack
  • MultiVersus: MVP Pack 2

Leaving September 15

  • Ashes of Singularity: Escalation (PC)
  • FIFA 23 (cloud, console, PC) EA Play
  • Payday 3 (cloud, console, PC)
  • Slime Rancher 2 (cloud, console, PC)
  • SpiderHeck (cloud, console, PC)
  • You Suck At Parking (cloud, console, PC)

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Carli Velocci
Carli Velocci
Contributor, Games
Carli is a technology, culture, and games editor and journalist. They were the Gaming Lead and Copy Chief at Windows Central…
A beloved Xbox Game Pass indie is getting an ambitious sequel
A player in Descenders Next moutainboards.

Descenders, an indie sports game from RageSquid and No More Robots, is quietly one of the best games on Xbox Game Pass thanks to its engaging bike-riding gameplay and endlessly playable, procedurally generated levels. Now, it's getting a sequel called Descenders Next that trades in biking for snowboarding and mountainboarding.

In Descenders Next, players can choose from a variety of handcrafted parks or procedurally generated level "nodes" across several different biomes. Players are then free to snowboard or mountainboard down the mountain, performing tricks and building up their reputation along the way.

Read more
The best games on Xbox Game Pass right now (August 2024)
Cal wielding his blue lightsaber and walking with BD-1 in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor key art.

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 the 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
Another great Activision game comes to Xbox Game Pass this month
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy

Microsoft has revealed the first wave of Xbox Game Pass titles coming to the subscription service this August. While we already knew about Creatures of Ava and Mafia: Definitive Edition's impending additions to Xbox Game Pass, we also learned that another Activision Blizzard game is coming: Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy.

Originally a PlayStation 4 exclusive, Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy revamped Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot games for what were then current-gen platforms. It toed the line between remaster and remake as the visuals got a complete overhaul, but it was extremely faithful when it came to gameplay and level design. Regardless, the first three Crash Bandicoot games are fantastic, so N. Sane Trilogy is as well.

Read more