What happens when a game leaves Game Pass?

With Xbox Game Pass (Ultimate), you can play over 100 epic high-quality games on your Xbox, PC and through the cloud! Sadly, sometimes a game leaves the Game Pass library. But when do games leave Game Pass? And if a game leaves, can you still play it? In this article you’ll find all the answers you need!

Published on: 06-05-2022

When do games leave Game Pass?

When games leave Game Pass, they typically get the boot around the 15th and the last day of every month. Usually, Microsoft gives about a two weeks notice if a game leaves Game Pass.

How do I know when games will be leaving Game Pass?

You’ll find a section with games leaving Xbox Game Pass on your Xbox within the Game Pass library, or in the Xbox Game Pass app for Android and iOS.

What happens when a game leaves Game Pass?

You're probably wondering if you can still play the game once it left Game Pass. Unfortunately, you can’t play the game for free once it’s been removed from Game Pass - even if you’ve installed it on your Xbox or PC. This doesn’t mean you won’t be able to play the game at all. But in order to play the game, you have to buy it first.

Will I be able to acces my save game after a game leaves Xbox Game Pass?

Yes, your save game will still be available online. So if you login to your Xbox account, then you can play the game from where you last left off - even if you decide to buy the game later.

Get discounts on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass games

The good news is that, as a Game Pass member, you’ll get up to 20% discount on all Xbox Game Pass games. But keep in mind that you have to buy the game before it leaves the Xbox Game Pass library in order to profit from the Game Pass discount.

How long do games stay on Xbox and PC Game Pass?

How long a game remains available on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass depends on what kind of agreement Microsoft has made with the publisher of the game. Microsoft pays publishers to get their games on the service, and the longer the game is on Game Pass, the more Microsoft has to pay the publisher. As you can imagine, the more popular and recently released games also cost a premium.

Unfortunately (but logically), Microsoft doesn’t disclose the details of these Game Pass deals. So we can only guess at the duration of these partnerships between Microsoft and the publisher. We do know that Microsoft loves to invest in their Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass service, so usually new games will stay in the library for quite a long time - even big, popular ones!

Xbox First Party Games stay longer on Xbox Game Pass

There have been cases in which games were removed after just a few weeks, such as with Red Dead Redemption II and GTA - granted, that deal must’ve cost Xbox quite a fortune!

But we do know one thing for certain: all games published by Xbox itself will stay on Game Pass for a very long time. Curious to know which games are from first party studios of Xbox? Then check out the list below:

Xbox First Party games and studios

Minecraft	Mojang
Halo Series	343 Industries
Sea of Thieves	Rade
Hellblade	Ninja Theory
DOOM, Quake	id Software
Forza Motorsport Series	Turn 10
Forza Horizon Series	Playground Games
Microsoft Flight Simulator	Xbox Game Studios
Gears of Wars Series	The Coalition
Wolvenstein Series	Machine Games
The Elder Scrolls, Fallout Series	Bethesda Game Studios
Dishonored, Prey, Deathloop	Arkane
The Evil Within Series	Tango Gameworks
The Outer Worlds	Obsidia Entertainment
Psychonauts Series	Double Fine
State of Decay Series	Undead Labs

You won’t have to worry about any of these games leaving the Xbox Game Pass or PC Game Pass library any time soon, so feel free to put them at the back of your backlog.

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