Is Once Human on Xbox Game Pass?
Once Human isn’t on Xbox Game Pass, but don’t worry — that doesn’t mean you’ll have to pay for it. That’s because it’s a free-to-play game, and thus doesn’t have a monetary barrier to entry at all. If Once Human comes to Xbox consoles or the Microsoft Store at some point, though, there’s a chance the game could get Xbox Game Pass Perks.
Not on Game Pass, but for a good reason
If you enjoy survival games and multiplayer experiences, you’ll definitely want to check out Once Human. It’s one of the biggest game releases of the summer — as I write this, it’s the fourth most-wishlisted game on Valve’s PC gaming platform Steam — and is a post-apocalyptic survival shooter that strongly focuses on frequent combat encounters against surreal Lovecraftian entities, open world exploration, base building mechanics, and a variety of both PvE and PvP activities that involve other players.
Our Once Human FAQ goes over it in more detail, but just know that it’s got the potential to be one of the best PC games of 2024. Unsurprisingly, that potential has many players curious if Once Human will either release on or eventually come to the PC version of Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass, a popular buffet-style gaming service that gives subscribers access to hundreds of games for a $10 monthly cost.
Once Human won’t be on Game Pass, but there’s a very good reason for that: it’s a free-to-play game. In other words, you can download and play it without paying a penny, which completely eliminates the reason players want games to come to the service in the first place: to save money on upfront costs.
Could Once Human get Game Pass Perks?
Once Human’s release won’t bring the game to Xbox Game Pass, but could the survival shooter get roped into the Xbox Game Pass Perks program? For the unaware, this program allows Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members to claim some exclusive in-game rewards like cosmetics and season passes for various titles, and aside from access to Game Pass on both Xbox and PC as well as Xbox Cloud Gaming, it’s one of the biggest reasons to upgrade to Game Pass Ultimate.
There’s always a chance Once Human rewards could be offered in the program — the game has cosmetic microtransactions as well as paid battle passes — but it would need to come to Xbox consoles or the Microsoft Store for that to happen. At launch, it’s only available on Steam and the Epic Games Store (notably, it’s also coming to mobile devices later this year).
If the game does eventually come to the Microsoft Store and rewards for it do get included in the Xbox Game Pass Perks program, I’ll be sure to update this article with the latest information. Until that happens, though, being subscribed to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will give Once Human players no benefits.
Once Human is almost here, and the multiplayer open world survival shooter might just end up being one of 2024’s biggest and brightest PC games. Notably, it’ll be completely free to play, so you can check it out without spending a penny once it drops on July 9.
