Microsoft has confirmed that from October this year they will no longer have Xbox 360 games on Games With Gold.
The news surfaced in an email sent out to Dutch Xbox Live Gold Subscribers that from October 2022, Games With Gold will no longer offer Xbox 360 Games to download.
Xbox One games will still be available to download each month though.
A spokesperson for Microsoft stated:
“ Beginning on October 1, 2022, we will no longer release Xbox 360 titles on a monthly basis as part of the Games with Gold benefit. We’ll focus on continuing to deliver Xbox One titles through the Games with Gold program.
No other Xbox Live Gold benefits will be impacted by this change. We’re always looking at ways to evolve the Xbox experience based on community engagement, feedback, and shifting company priorities.
We have reached the limit of our ability to bring new games to the catalog from the past due to licensing and technical constraints. We will continue to focus on providing Xbox One titles through the Games with Gold program.”
In addition, regardless of whether they continue to pay for Xbox Live Gold, Xbox customers can redownload any 360 games they have purchased through Games with Gold, according to the email.
Games with Gold usually offers two Xbox 360 games a month for download so will they downscale or replace these with more Xbox One titles only time will tell.
The Xbox Games With Gold subscription service was started in 2013 in response to Sony’s PS Plus subscription service and has grown from strength to strength being only overshadowed by the Xbox Game Pass subscription which offers numerous games to subscribers across various platforms each month.
It appeared as though Microsoft was getting ready to restructure the service after it recently removed the necessity for Xbox Live Gold to play online free-to-play games, and this statement further strengthens that impression.
This month’s Xbox Games With Gold games can be seen in our recent article here.