In almost a decade of service, Xbox Games with Gold has certainly had its ups and downs. Indeed, there are many who question where Games with Gold fits into Microsoft's future plans, especially with the success of Xbox Game Pass. Still, the service is reliably churning out new free games to download for those with a Gold membership. In fact, the latest batch is already here.
As with the first batch of July's Games with Gold offerings, the latest additions to the service are available a day early. Those with a subscription to Xbox Live Gold can saunter on over to the Microsoft Store and pick them up right now. Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break and Midway Arcade Origins are the orders of the day, so anyone hankering after some tower defense shenanigans or arcade classics is in luck.
Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break is the latest bizarre entry in ACE Team's popular tower defense/racing series. With its Monty Python-esque humor leaning heavily into the absurd and the silly, fans will hopefully get a laugh out of the manic action on offer. Make & Break even features a level editor for the first time in the series, allowing players to design and share their own stages complete with Terry Gilliam-style animations and assets, so those who want to create some chaos of their own should pick up this new addition to Xbox Games with Gold's roster before its departure on August 15.
The other new addition is Midway Arcade Origins, a nostalgic look back at the arcade classics of developer Midway Games. With 31 games on offer, including the likes of Gauntlet, Marble Madness, and Rampage, there's likely something in the collection for even the most ornery arcade fan. At the time of writing, for some reason, Midway Arcade Origins is only available as a Game with Gold on the Xbox 360 Marketplace, but that's likely to be rectified soon, after which it will stay on offer until July 31.
Still, even with (technically) 32 titles being added to the service today, it's easy to be a little underwhelmed by this month's selection of games. Compared to the PS Plus offerings for July, which included heavy hitters A Plague Tale: Innocence and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, getting a handful of middlingly-reviewed games for the cost of an Xbox Live Gold subscription may prove disappointing for fans.
Nevertheless, there's always Xbox Game Pass to fall back on. With an Ultimate subscription to Game Pass, users will get access to Games with Gold anyway. As such, the rumors that Microsoft intends to shut down Xbox Live Gold in favor of Game Pass are not necessarily without merit or foundation. Fans will have to wait and see what the ultimate fate of Xbox Live Gold will be, but with dozens of great games already available on Game Pass and plenty more set to release on the service in the future, perhaps the writing is already on the wall.