Could Xbox Live’s Free Play Days mirror Steam Free Weekends?

By Will Fulton August 21, 2014

xbox live gold add free game days starting max curse brotherhood games with — Image used with permission by copyright holder

A new Free Play Day feature appears to be coming to Xbox Live, possibly starting with Press Play’s Max: The Curse of Brotherhood, based on an image shared by Redditor and Xbox Preview Program participant JBurton90 on the /r/XboxOne channel.

Although Microsoft has made no official announcement yet, the feature will presumably be added universally in an impending system update. Based on the name, it’s likely that select games will be free to play in the Xbox Games Store for single-day chunks of time. We expect the feature will be similar to Steam’s Free Weekend offers.

Microsoft has been showcasing Press Play’s creative platformer for Xbox One since Games with Gold first arrived on Xbox One in June 2014 with Max: The Curse of Brotherhood and Halo: Spartan Assault as the console’s first free titles. Free Play Day is another vector for Microsoft to promote particular titles and increase the value proposition of Xbox Live Gold subscriptions.

It is not yet clear whether the day will correspond to a particular calendar day, or 24 hours from whenever you choose to download the game in question. In any case, with the recent announcement of the EA Access subscription service, along with Games with Gold, it is encouraging to see major players in the video game industry experimenting with a wider range of payment and distribution models than the calcified $60 new release price that the industry had settled into.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…

Deals

PS Plus, Xbox Live Gold on sale from only $4 for Memorial Day

ps plus xbox live gold cdkeys spring sale video games featured resized

If you're looking for some great last-minute Memorial Day sales before heading back to reality Tuesday, there are certainly plenty of good deals left. If you're a gamer, we have great deals on PS Plus and Xbox Live Gold subscriptions from CDKeys that can save you a ton of money.

The site has deals on both that can save you up to 50% off what you might pay at GameStop or other retailers and will keep you playing long after Memorial Day is over. What are the best deals? We've listed those below -- all of which are a few dollars lower than they've been in previous sales. We recommend you take advantage.
PS Plus

Deals

Best Memorial Day Xbox One Deals 2020: Consoles and games

Summer is nearly here, and so are some great Memorial Day sales. Among your standard gardening tool and outdoor furniture deals that seem to appear just about every holiday, we've also spotted some great sales on gaming gear, and the Xbox One deals are pretty good this year. Want to know where to shop? We've provided a list of the best deals below.
Today's best Memorial Day Xbox One deals

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for Xbox One -- $1, was $15
1-Month Xbox Live Gold Membership for Xbox One -- $9, was $10
3-Month Xbox Live Gold Membership Card -- $20, was $25
Borderlands 3 (Xbox One) -- $20, was $40
NBA 2K20 (Xbox One) -- $20, was $30
FIFA 20 (Xbox One) -- $25, was $40
NHL 20 (Xbox One) -- $25, was $30
Minecraft Master Collection (Xbox One) -- $45, was $50
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Xbox One) -- $55, was $60
12-Month Xbox Live Gold Membership -- $55, was $60

Gaming

What will PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X games look like at launch?

what will next gen console games look like playstation 5 xbox series x nextgenconsolegraphicsfeature

The next-generation consoles, Sony’s PlayStation 5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X, have gamers hyped for stunning new eye candy. That desire was stoked by Epic’s reveal of an Unreal Engine 5 demo that pushes far beyond what’s possible on current hardware.

Epic’s demo was only that, however. A demo. It’s unclear when a game might live up to the expectations it sets. In fact, gamers have enjoyed precious few clips of next-gen gameplay. Even events that promised gameplay, like Microsoft’s Xbox Series X First Look, threw out mere scraps.