Xbox quietly makes gloriously disturbing game free for you to download

The first Xbox Game Pass title of 2025 is finally here… and you might recognise it, depending on how long you’ve been a subscriber.

Thank you in advance to Pure Xbox’s Ben Kerry for noticing this one!

Carrion, the gross, squelchy horror game from developers Phobia Game Studio and publishers Devolver Digital, is our first official Xbox Game Pass game of the year.

Carrion is a bit of a body horror Metroidvania, tasking you with escaping the research facility in which you, the “Monster”, are being held in (and murdering literally everyone along the way).

The title received relatively positive reviews on release, especially on Xbox.

The Xbox version of the game is currently sitting at a score of 76 out of 100 over on Metacritic, with a general 76/100 Top Critic average on OpenCritic.

Plus, Carrion was also nominated for both the Best Debut Game and Best Indie awards at The Game Awards in 2020.

This probably isn’t the first time Xbox Game Pass subscribers have seen the game pop up however, as (according to Pure Xbox’s Ben Kerry) Carrion was previously “available back in 2020, 2021 and the first half of 2022.”

Funnily enough, that is exactly how I remember first playing the game and it’s probably how most people have come to even learn of its existence in the first place.

Either way, it’s nice to see Carrion back on Xbox Game Pass - especially considering it’s almost been three years since it was last available.

I think it’s well worth a go if you somehow didn’t get around to it during its three-year-long stint on the service, as long as you’re not the squeamish type.

Here’s hoping we get a slightly juicier addition at some point in the next few weeks though. Hey, maybe Microsoft will even add Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League!