As 2024 comes to a close, there’s been a ton of Game Pass news this week. Traditionally, in December, Microsoft strives to communicate all the important information about subscriptions for December and early January in the first half of the month, after which it goes “for the holidays.” We have collected the main news about Game Pass for the period from December 1 to December 7.
New games on Game Pass
8 games were added to Game Pass last week. But most of them are for the Core and Standard levels, that is, users of the Ultimate subscription already had access to them.
Here are the 8 games and the subscription levels where they became available:
- Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled (Core, Standard, Ultimate)
- DayZ (Core)
- Goat Simulator (Core)
- Hauntii (Standard)
- Humanity (Standard)
- Forza Motorsport (Standard)
- EA SPORTS WRC (Ultimate, PC)
- Overthrown (Ultimate, PC)
The main release of the week for Game Pass can be called Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled. Another game from Activision has joined the subscription service after the publisher merged with Microsoft. Note that it was not released on PC, so it was added to the subscription only for Xbox One and Xbox Series X | S.
Announcements for Game Pass
This week, Microsoft announced games for Game Pass for the entire month of December and early January:
- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (Xbox, PC) – 9 декабря (Ultimate, PC)
- Wildfrost (Xbox, PC) – December 10 (Ultimate, PC)
- For the King II (Xbox, PC) — December 12 (Ultimate, PC)
- Hunt: Showdown 1896 (Xbox, PC) — December 12 (Ultimate, PC)
- Carrion (Xbox, PC) – 2 января (Ultimate, PC, Standard)
- Road 96 (Xbox, PC) – 7 января (Ultimate, PC, Standard)
The release of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on Game Pass has been known for a long time, but Microsoft once again included it in its list of projects for December. Note that the game is already available in early access (for buyers of the enhanced edition) and is receiving rave reviews from critics and players who have tried it. In particular, Digital Foundry specialists spoke positively about the project.
Game Pass release dates
Several games received postponements to 2025 this week, some with exact release dates. Here is a list of these projects:
- Eternal Strands – January 28, 2025
- Citizen Sleeper 2 – January 31, 2025
- The Alters – early 2025
- Commandos: Origins – 2025
- Descenders Next — 2025 год
Games to be removed from Game Pass in December
Since the second half of December is a holiday, Microsoft immediately announced this month all the games that it plans to remove from the subscription – both at the beginning of the month and at the end. Below are these lists.
7 games will be removed from Game Pass on December 16th:
- Amnesia: The Bunker (Xbox, PC, xCloud)
- Forager (Xbox, PC, xCloud)
- Forza Horizon 4 (Xbox, PC, xCloud)
- Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan (Xbox, PC, xCloud)
- Rise of the Tomb Raider (Xbox, PC, xCloud)
- Tin Hearts (Xbox, PC, xCloud)
- The Quarry (Xbox, xCloud)
6 games will be removed from Game Pass on December 31st:
- BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle (Xbox, PC, xCloud)
- Close to the Sun (Xbox, PC, xCloud)
- Humankind (Xbox, PC, xCloud)
- Lego 2K Drive (Xbox, xCloud)
- McPixel 3 (Xbox, PC, xCloud)
- Party Animals (Xbox, xCloud)
