Recently, Microsoft has stopped putting quite as much effort into the Xbox free Games with Gold games, with it not being uncommon for the service to offer old and obscure games over more significant titles. Part of this has to do with theGames with Gold programstill giving away Xbox 360 games when that console has been defunct for years, and part of it has to do with Microsoft having its attention elsewhere.
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2021 provided plenty of evidence that Microsoft doesn’t care about the Xbox free Games with Gold program nearly as much as it used to. TheXbox free Games with Goldstarted the year out relatively strong, but as the months went by, Microsoft started putting up less popular and more obscure games, with multiple months facing heavy criticism from fans online and having their reveal trailers flooded with dislikes. So what happened?
Xbox Free Games with Gold for January 2021
Xbox Free Games with Gold for February 2021
The most significant game added to the Xbox free Games with Gold program for February 2021 was arguablyGears 5. In fact,Gears 5was perhaps the biggest game added to Games with Gold for the entire year, and that’s because it doubled as an Xbox Series X game. There’s anative Xbox Series X version ofGears 5available, making it the sole Xbox Series X release out of all the Games with Gold titles for 2021.
WIth Sony regularly offering a free PS5 game through PlayStation Plus since the launch of its next-generation console, one can’t be blamed if they assumed Microsoft would do something similar with the Xbox free Games with Gold. However, it’s clear at this point that Microsoft doesn’t have much interest in supporting the free Games with Gold all that much, instead putting its efforts into Xbox Game Pass.
Xbox Game Pass is the Future of Xbox
Microsoft saved all the big games for Xbox Game Pass over Xbox Live Gold, ensuring that the newer service had a regular stream of brand new, day one releases as well as a variety of high-quality older titles. Microsoft isn’t going to change its strategy moving forward, and so fans should expect the trend to continue.Xbox Game Pass will keep getting bigger and better, while Xbox Live Gold will continue to become irrelevant.
MORE:All of the Free Xbox Games with Gold Games Released in 2021
