Xbox users aren't even bothering with new free games, believe shutdown is imminent

If you pay for any gaming subscription service, I’m almost certain that, like me, you’ll have determined that it’s basically impossible to stay on top of your backlog. If the year’s new releases weren’t enough, we’re constantly being spoiled for choice with freebies.

Sony recently announced July’s PlayStation Plus free games, and it’s a phenomenal month. From tomorrow (4 July), subscribers can claim Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Alan Wake Remastered and Endling - Extinction is Forever at no extra cost. Not only is that a brilliant, varied selection, but they’ll take over 100 hours to play to completion, giving gamers plenty of bang for their buck.

Take a look at the trailer for Alan Wake Remastered below.

Meanwhile though, Xbox users aren’t happy at all with the current state of Games with Gold - the monthly free game service that’s offered as a perk of subscribing to Xbox Live Gold. If users aren’t subscribed to Game Pass Ultimate, they’re required to pay for Xbox Live Gold in order to play online, so it’s a service that most would be paying for anyway - with or without the free games. With that said, fans believe that the freebies have been going downhill in a major way lately.

“Games with Gold sucks now. It’s sucked for a while now, at least a year,” Reddit user androidtic_mammal wrote. “The games we get are all C tier games at best, good for a hour or two of fun at most. The games they are getting on PlayStation these days are 10 times better, for example they get Alan Wake Remastered this month. It was better when we got backwards compatible games. What the hell is going on Microsoft?”

Others believe that this could even be the beginning of the end for the service: “I really don’t care about GWG anymore. I am thankful for every [Xbox] 360 game I [got] for free over the years. And they are really free, even without subscription I can play them whenever I want. I also think GWG will be getting shut down in one or two years,” Away-Trainer101 commented. “Yeah I agree, seems it is being sundowned. But it sucks for everyone who missed the GWG original/360 games, even if they repeated some of the classic games on the service, it would be better than what we have now,” androidtic_mammal replied.

If you’re still keeping up with the Games with Gold free games, fear not - Microsoft hasn’t said anything to imply that the service is on its way out. In case you've not claimed it already, don't forget to grab the unique audio-based game, The Vale: Shadow of the Crown, before it disappears from the service later this month.