What you need to know
- Three more games are headed to Xbox Game Pass in the coming weeks.
- Subscribers will be able to play the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, Mafia: Definitive Edition, and Creatures of Ava.
- A few games are also leaving the subscription service soon, including Shadow Warrior 3.
Everyone’s favorite orange marsupial is on the way.
The latest batch of games headed to Xbox Game Pass has been revealed, courtesy of Xbox Wire on Tuesday. For the first half of August 2024, subscribers can expect a smaller wave of games, but one that includes the addition of the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, as previously reported and corroborated by Windows Central.
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy marks the second Activision Blizzard King game to be added to Microsoft’s subscription service in recent weeks, with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 being added back in July. After acquiring Activision Blizzard King in October 2023, Microsoft has opted to take a drip-feed approach, slowly adding games into Xbox Game Pass instead of launching everything at once.
You can find the full details on what’s coming to Xbox Game Pass in the first half of August 2024 below:
August 7
- Creatures of Ava (Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Windows PC)
August 8
- Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy (Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Windows PC)
August 13
- Mafia: Definitive Edition
What’s leaving Xbox Game Pass on August 15?
As usual, there’s also a handful of games that are exiting Xbox Game Pass in the coming weeks. If you want to keep playing these games, you’ll need to buy them. As a reminder, you get a discount for buying a game while it’s still in the Xbox Game Pass library, so act fast and you’ll save some money.
- Airborne Kingdoms
- Offworld Trading Company
- Shadow Warrior 3
- The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Analysis: Let the Activision games continue
Hopefully seeing two Activision Blizzard king games added to Xbox Game Pass in as many months is a sign that the faucet is being opened, at least a little bit. I still am not expecting some huge wave of games to arrive, but it would be nice to see this cadence continue, with a game or two added every month from here on out.
There are a lot of older Call of Duty games in particular, and while I know those games are some of the most popular titles for players to buy via backward compatibility, I’d still appreciate the ability to revisit those campaigns (or check out a couple that I missed out on) without spending hundreds of dollars.
