Update: The games have been revealed!
PLANET ALPHA (July 1 to 31)
Survive a strange planet filled with danger and mystery. Marooned and alone, venture across the beautiful foreign land and unlock its many hidden secrets. With relentless enemies pursuing you, harness the power of night and day in your fight to stay alive in this alien world.
Rock of Ages 3: Make or Break (July 16 - August 15)
Jump into a sprawling, gut-busting story featuring bizarre and absurd takes on legendary characters. Design, build, and share your custom levels with friends in this Monty Python-esque tower defense and arcade game.
Conker: Live & Reloaded (July 1 - 15)
Back with a hangover and a heavy dose of attitude, play gaming’s notorious squirrel, Conker, through a raunchy world full of twisted characters, innuendos, and outrageous movie parodies.
Midway Arcade Origins (July 16 - 31)
With more than 30 timeless entries from the golden age of arcade gaming, relive your childhood or discover classic games for the first time, such as Defender, Gauntlet, Rampart, and more. No quarters needed to play!
Original Story Follows:
It's getting a bit hotter outside, so we reckon it's better to stay in and play some more free games courtesy of July's Xbox Games With Gold.
The service is a nifty bonus for anyone subscribed to Xbox Live Gold or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and offers four monthly games for users to download.
Usually formed of two Xbox One games and two Backward Compatibility titles, the service usually compliments Game Pass – although there is also some crossover.
Here's what we know so far.
When are Games with Gold July free games revealed?
Unlike Sony PlayStation and the PS Plus subscription, Microsoft's equivalent service doesn't have a set time or day for reveals.
With Sony, it's quite simple. The PS Plus games are revealed on the final Wednesday of a month and go live on the first Tuesday.
Team Xbox has a slightly more carefree approach. They definitely go live on the Xbox Store on the first day of the month, but as for when they're revealed, well there's little logic to dictate when it's announced.
Major Nelson, the Director of Programming for Xbox Live, typically announces the news (if it doesn't leak beforehand), but he tends to do it whenever he pleases.
In the past, we've seen the Games with Gold reveal in all manner of days and times. Sometimes even on the weekend, out of hours.
Recent months have seen these announcements come further towards the back end of the month. But again, there's nothing set in stone.
Unfortunately, it could be fans who are left waiting until the close of the week before the information is shared.
That's because Major Nelson's announcements have been getting later and later in the month these past 6 months.
To save you repeatedly clicking refresh on Major Nelson's Twitter feed in the hopes that something shows, you could set up Twitter notifications.
For now, check the bottom of this page for a quick reminder of what games are available currently, so you can make sure to download them before they're removed from the service at the end of June.
Games With Gold July 2021 Predictions
We seldom indulge in Games with Gold predictions because it's almost impossible to predict what Xbox will actually give away.
Some sites have suggested that Life is Strange 2 could be given away since Life Is Strange: True Colors was recently announced.
But this is pretty baseless from what we can tell and we'd try not to get too hyped (or disappointed) until the official Xbox announcement is made.
One thing we would like to see is something for next-gen. PlayStation Plus has handed out Bugnsax, Destruction All-Stars, and Control: Ultimate Edition, with Oddworld: Soulstorm coming soon. We've got Xbox's Gears 5 recently as part of Games With Gold, but if you have Game Pass you'll likely have already sunk some hours into that.
Still, it's nice to get some Xbox 360 gems for the time being – but we'd imagine Microsoft will have to change things up soon.
Games With Gold July 2021 Games - Don't Forget!
As with every month, make sure you don't overlook the existing selection of free Xbox Games with Gold titles.
At the time of writing, you can grab the below games throughout June – so hop to it!
- The King’s Bird ($19.99 ERP): Available June 1 to 30
- Shadows: Awakening ($29.99 ERP): Available June 16 to July 15
- NeoGeo Battle Coliseum ($9.99 ERP): Available June 1 to 15
- Injustice: Gods Among Us ($19.99 ERP): Available June 16 to 30
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