Xbox Games With Gold program showers subscribers with free games in December

By Gabe Gurwin November 22, 2016

Xbox - December Games with Gold

If you’re low on cash after buying gifts for your family this holiday season, you’ll still have plenty of great games to play on your Xbox One. Microsoft has revealed the free games Xbox Live Gold subscribers will receive next month through the Games With Gold program, and it looks like the year will end on a very good note.

For the entire month of December, Xbox One owners will be able to download Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition for free. The crime adventure, set in Hong Kong, uses a great hand-to-hand combat system and a voice cast that includes Emma Stone, and serves as a successor to the earlier True Crime series.

From December 16 until January 15, Xbox One owners will also be able to download Outlast. The horror game, which is receiving a sequel next year, was one of the bright spots during an otherwise rocky launch for the current generation of consoles, and comes close to perfecting the combat-free horror we’ve seen in games like Amnesia and Slender.

Xbox 360 owners will have access to two very well-received games, as well, and as with all Xbox 360 games included in the program, they are fully playable on Xbox One. Outland, one of the few Xbox games made by developer Housemarque, is available from December 1 until December 15. Its gorgeous art design and combat resemble the action-platformer Strider, which saw its latest entry made free through PlayStation Plus in 2014.

Lastly, Xbox Live Gold members will be able to snag Burnout: Paradise from December 16 until the end of 2016. The racing game originally released in 2008 to rave reviews, with many praising the evolution of the series as well as developer Criterion’s take on open-world design. Since then, Criterion has also developed the acclaimed Need for Speed: Most Wanted before canceling an action-racing project this year.

What do you think about December’s freebies? Is it enough to keep you paying for Xbox Live? Let us know in the comments!

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

Gaming

Every summer 2024 gaming showcase: full schedule and stream recaps

Geoff Keighley shows a slide showing the top 10 selling Steam Games of 2024.

This summer, we're living in a brave new world. E3 is officially dead -- for real this time. That means there's a vacuum to be filled as publishers still look to showcase their games during high-profile events. There's both good news and bad news for anyone who looks forward to E3 season. The good news? Summer Game Fest is filling that gap, alongside several streams that'll orbit around it. The bad news? Keeping track of it all is a huge pain.

Over the next few months, we'll see scattered shows from Sony, Xbox, Nintendo, Ubisoft, and more game companies. To help make your life a little easier, we're rounding them up in one place. We'll keep this article updated throughout the summer, adding in the VODs of all the streams once they air, so check back in from now until September so you don't miss a single show.
State of Play: May 30
State of Play | May 30, 2024 | [English]

Gaming

Xbox Game Pass has its own Super Mario Odyssey, and it’s a delight

A giant ghost is wrapped in chains in Hauntii.

PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X have a lot of advantages over the Switch, but there's one advantage Nintendo never loses: games. While Sony and Microsoft struggle to put out consistent exclusives, Nintendo always manages to put out fairly high-quality games on a monthly bases (even if some recent releases have felt like filler). The fact that you can only play Super Mario Odyssey on a Nintendo console will always be the company's ace in the hole.

Thankfully, enough developers have been influenced by Nintendo's design that it's not hard to find a great title that scratches the same itch as a Nintendo classic on competing platforms. Just look at games like the Pikmin-inspired Tinykin. Xbox has been especially smart about seeking out games like that over the years and adding them to Xbox Game Pass. It's done that once again with one of its newest additions, the delightful Hauntii.

Gaming

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is coming to Xbox Game Pass at launch

A soldier squats in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 key art.

After days of speculation, Xbox confirmed that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will come to Xbox Game Pass at launch. Xbox has not specified which platforms it will come to, though.

When Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was officially announced last week, fans immediately began speculating about its Game Pass status. It's the first Call of Duty title released since Microsoft successfully acquired Activision Blizzard, so a Game Pass launch seemed likely. While the announcement was initially leaked by a Game Pass notification, Xbox has now officially confirmed that the game is bound for the service.