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Coming to Xbox Game Pass: Venba, The Wandering Village, Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem, and More - Xbox Wire

There are many opportunities to brush up on our real-life skills through gaming this month, including puzzle solving, cooking, building a settlement on the back of a giant wandering creature to survive a post-apocalyptic world, and even photography! Let’s get to the games. Available Today...

news.xbox.com

There are many opportunities to brush up on our real-life skills through gaming this month, including puzzle solving, cooking, building a settlement on the back of a giant wandering creature to survive a post-apocalyptic world, and even photography! Let’s get to the games.

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Available Today​

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Techtonica (Game Preview) (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Available on day one with Game Pass: Dig into the sub-surface, bioluminescent world of a rogue alien planet as you explore and construct sprawling factories in Techtonica. Work alone or in co-op to master automation, gather resources, research new technologies, mold the destructible terrain, establish a base of operations, and uncover long-forgotten secrets.

Toem (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Set off on a delightful expedition and use your photographic eye to uncover the mysteries of the magical Toem in this hand-drawn adventure game. Chat with quirky characters, solve their problems by snapping neat photos, and make your way through a relaxing landscape!

The Cave (Cloud and Console)
The Cave is an adventure game from Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion creator Ron Gilbert, and Double Fine Productions, the award-winning studio behind Psychonauts and Brütal Legend. Assemble your team of three from seven unlikely adventurers, each with their own unique personalities, and then descend into the mysterious depths.

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Coming Soon​

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Maquette (Console and PC) – July 19
Maquette is a first-person recursive puzzle game that takes you into a world where every building, plant, and object are simultaneously tiny and staggeringly huge. Maquette makes it possible by twisting the world into itself recursively in an MC Escher-esque fashion.

Figment 2: Creed Valley (Cloud, Console, and PC) – July 20
Figment 2: Creed Valley is an action-adventure game set in the human mind. Nightmares are spreading chaos and have overrun once-peaceful lands. Join Dusty, The Mind’s courage, as you make your way through puzzles, musical boss fights, and unique environments.

The Wandering Village (Cloud, Console, and PC) – July 20
The Wandering Village is a city-building simulation game on the back of a giant, wandering creature. Build your settlement and form a symbiotic relationship with the colossus. Will you survive together in this hostile, yet beautiful post-apocalyptic world, contaminated by poisonous plants?

Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – July 25
Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem is a new stand-alone expansion to the world of the classic FPS series. Join the fight against Notorious Mental on a journey through the wild lands of Russia and find your way through this lost chapter of Sam Stone’s adventures.

Venba (Console and PC) – July 31
Available on day one with Game Pass: Venba is a short narrative cooking game, where you play as an Indian mom, who immigrates to Canada with her family in the 1980s. Players will cook various dishes and restore lost recipes, hold branching conversations, and explore in this story about family, love, loss, and more.

Celeste (Cloud, Console, and PC) – August 1
Celeste makes a return to the Game Pass library! Help Madeline survive her inner demons on her journey to the top of Celeste Mountain, in this super-tight platformer from the creators of TowerFall. Brave hundreds of hand-crafted challenges, uncover devious secrets, and piece together the mystery of the mountain.

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DLC / Game Updates​

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Naraka: Bladepoint Deluxe Edition Upgrade – Available now
Naraka: Bladepoint is now free to play, and all Game Pass members will get free conversion from the current Standard Edition to the new Deluxe Edition along with in-game rewards. Learn more here.

League of Legends Champion: Naafiri – July 20
Game Pass members can instantly unlock the newest League of Legends Champion, Naafiri, on July 20 with their membership. Her pack will always find the lone prey. So, the choice is yours: starve or feast.

Sea of Thieves: The Legend of Monkey Island – July 20
Voyage deep into the Caribbean with Sea of Thieves: The Legend of Monkey Island – an original story told in installments across three Tall Tales, the first of which arrives July 20, it’s a hilarious, heartfelt love-letter to the iconic adventure game series!

Dead by Daylight: Nicolas Cage DLC – July 25
Game Pass members save 10% off this DLC! You know him well. A legend with over one hundred film credits to his name, Nick Cage has seen it all and done it all. Yet never did he anticipate that upon taking a role in the film “Descend Beyond”, he’d find himself falling into the clutches of The Entity, forced to live out an eternity of endless Trials alongside co-stars that may or may not be hellbent on hanging him from a meat hook.

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Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Perks​

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Crunchyroll Premium Perk – July 20
For a limited time, get 75 days of Crunchyroll Premium (Mega Fan Plan) with your Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership. Stream the world’s largest anime library of more than 1,000 titles ad-free, anywhere you want. Press play on music videos, concerts, manga, and more!

FIFA 23 EA Play Ultimate Team Pack – July 21
Get your EA Play FUTTIES Super Loan Pack, featuring one loan Player Item for your FIFA 23 Ultimate Team! Game Pass Ultimate and EA Play members can claim this Pack from July 21 to August 21, 2023.

Naruto Shippuden Uncut Season 1 – Available Now
Enjoy the first season of “Naruto Shippuden Uncut” with your Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Membership. Naruto returns to the Village Hidden in the Leaves and takes on his old Sensei. Get other seasons of Naruto and hundreds of other Anime series on sale during Microsoft Movies & TV’s Anime month.

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Leaving July 31​

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The following games are leaving the Game Pass library soon, so there’s no better time to jump back in. If you want to keep the fun going, remember to use your membership discount to save up to 20% off these games to keep them in your library.

• Dreamscaper (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Expeditions: Rome (PC)
• Marvel’s Avengers (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• The Ascent (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Two Point Campus (Cloud, Console, and PC)

That’s a wrap! You know we’ll be back soon with more games, but in the meantime follow us at @XboxGamePassPC and @XboxGamePass on Twitter for the usual memes and updates. See you next time!

 

[Torrent of Pork]

If Wandering Village is the game I'm thinking of I've been wanting to play it for a hot minute.

 

[Aion002]

 

[Jigsaah]

I would callit the calm before the storm but you know...ABK deal not gonna be done til 2030 at this rate.

 

[M1987]

Game Pass is nowhere near as good as people make out,this is shit

 

[fatmarco]

Who actually likes Serious Sam 4 I mean really? They should have put the "Serious Sam Collection" on Gamepass.

Just awful, awful stuff. Playstation Plus got Alan Wake Remastered and COD Cold War for crying out loud lol.

 

[GHG]

Are they seriously putting games on the PC subscription service that have previously been given out for free (actually free, not free*) on other storefronts?

 

[winjer]

Serious Sam Siberian Mayhem is great.
But the rest is a bit lacking.

 

[Inuteu]

Leaving July 31​

• The Ascent (Cloud, Console, and PC)

wow got to finish this one

 

[acm2000]

people acting like the summer isnt a wash out in gaming on every platform

although wandering village and maquette look nice, and toem might be worth a play via cloud.

 

[adamsapple]

Let's call this the "We know which drops you're waiting for but we need to close it first" entry.

 

[Klosshufvud]

Shovelware Pass continues being a dumping ground for shit nobody wants to play or has played half a decade ago.

 

[analog_future]

Celeste and Toem are nice adds, but obviously this is a quiet month before some insane months ahead with the ActiBlizz acquisition imminent, Starfield in September, and Forza Motorsport in October.

 

[systemr123]

Yeey more indies for Indiepass. And to make it even better, exclusively indies . What a joke this service has become. And then they also have to raise the price of the sub to be able to support these great very expensive to make/license games lol.

 

[nowhat]

Game Pass eh? More like, Game Ass, amirite?

 

[SEGA_2012]

Worst deal in gaming.

 

[Spyxos]

Can it be that it gets worse every month? Nothing for me at all.

 

[havoc00]

Pretty shit tbh

 

[Lokaum D+]

ll renew my sub once D4 drops in

 

[systemr123]

Let's call this the "We know which drops you're waiting for but we need to close it first" entry.

Let’s just call this the “we dump garbage you’re not waiting for, but you’re going to pay for it anyway” entry.

 

[Robb]

Last few months have been pretty bad imo. Step it up MS.

 

[adamsapple]

Let’s just call this the “we dump garbage you’re not waiting for, but you’re going to pay for it anyway” entry.

 

[systemr123]

Why dodge the simple truth?

 

[Mr.ODST]

GP has been pretty bad so far but Serious Sam Siberian Mayhem was rated as one of the best DLC so cant wait to try that out

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Game Pass is nowhere near as good as people make out,this is shit

Best deal in gaming didn't you hear? That's why I only sub during the months they actually put shit I'm interested in.

 

[Punished Miku]

I'll have to give Dreamscaper another try before it's gone. I bounced off it the first time because it was surprisingly really difficult. Was into the art style and general feel of the game though.

From this, I'll try and work in Venba, Maquette, Wandering Village, Techtonica sometime soon. Still trying to get through Exoprimal, Sword and Fairy, Planet of Lana, Cassette Beasts, Arcade Paradise, Hypnospace, Slayers X, Amnesia, etc.

Everspace 2 next month will just be sitting there at this rate. No time man, literally.

 

[Zheph]

some (not so solid) damage control

 

[Heisenberg007]

 

[Salz01]

This reminds me, I keep forgetting to cancel my sub.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

 

[Sanepar]

Gamepass this year... my boy...

 

[DeepEnigma]

Not going to make big third party deals for top quality when you have Starfield coming to it, while also removing a massive revenue stake it would have had.

Pours one out for the Core.

 

[Pimpollo818]

in for Serious Sam and Toem

 

[CanYouFlyBobby?]

we already had celeste..

 

[dotnotbot]

 

[Mephisto40]

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

Gamepass this year... my boy...

I’ve paid less than $50 in 2023 and got:

Goldeneye
HiFi Rush
AoE2
Mount and Blade II
Cities Skyline Remastered
Hot Wheels Unleashed
Shadow Warrior 3
Atomic Heart
Wo Long
GTA V for Series X
MLB The Show (thanks Sony )
Ghostwire Tokyo
Minecraft Legends
Redfall
Planet of Lana
Bramble
FIST
Exoprimal

And those are just the games I downloaded and played so far, there are plenty of others I will try or are on the service but I already own. There’s also lots of Japanese nonsense widely considered to be great that doesn’t interest me like the Persona games that got added, FUGA, Monster Hunter Rise, etc.

And of course it’s all moot because we’re less than two months away from goddamn Starfield, which I’ll buy and own but the fact that it’s coming day one to the service, wow.

YMMV. But as someone who owns all three consoles, I know the others haven’t been flooded with amazing AAA content this year either. That’s exactly why I like GamePass, I get tons of good games that aren’t bloated AAA nonsense, and I get day one MS titles.

What’s the big AAA July game they should sign to GamePass? Pikmin 4?

 

[DryvBy]

GameFly you can just rent whatever games you want and it's about the same price. You don't get stuck with this kind of list.

 

[Heisenberg007]

people acting like the summer isnt a wash out in gaming on every platform

although wandering village and maquette look nice, and toem might be worth a play via cloud.

This is one of the best summers for games.

 

[Trogdor1123]

Anyone play Wandering Village? Looks fun

 

[Zathalus]

These threads are so boring in how predictable they are.

Looking at the service as a whole, Gamepass has been rather good over the past year or so.

 

[Roberts]

Wandering Village demo was pretty cool. I'm not really in the mood to play Age of Empires type stuff at the moment, but I will definitely check it out before it leaves. Despite the mega jank, I enjoyed the mindless stupidity of the new Serious Sam so I will check this one too. Maquette is not for me. Figment 2 looks awesome, so does Toem.

Not the best month, but not a total bust this thread makes it out to be.

 

[Kilau]

I hear Celeste is good. Everyone wanting ABK games, but this is the kind of stuff I love on Game pass.

 

[Jadsey]

Who said GamePass is a swamp of mediocrity?

Bet they are feeling mighty silly right now…..

 

[xrnzaaas]

Losing The Ascent and Two Point Campus in the same month is a big hit. Maquette and Toem were already in PS+ (plus they're small indies), Celeste is an older gamer now and The Wandering Village seems like the only interesting title.

 

[systemr123]

Who said GamePass is a swamp of mediocrity?

Bet they are feeling mighty silly right now…..

You mean that they’re too positive about the service even?

 

[poodaddy]

What the hell man? Gamepass was outstanding for a while, they've been lacking as of late. I love the idea of Gamepass, been loving the service, but this is a bit disappointing. Hopefully they get some better offerings soon, nothing here for me.

 

[AJUMP23]

I sense a lot of bias in this thread.

 

[skit_data]

I'm pretty sure at least two of those games were included in the PS+ Essential tier months ago...
Gamepass really looks a lot different than just a few years ago IMO

Edit: Slightly off topic but I just saw that console multiplayer isn't included in the Gamepass Console subscription? Has it always been like that? Sounds like a really really wierd deal tbh

 

[Killer8]

All of the subscription services are going to have some off months. The level of content production required to push out a big game a month is unsustainable. MS themselves have had to readjust their ambition to "one big first party game per quarter". Logically they could pay for more big third-party games to appear on the service, but that ball is in the court of publishers and many wouldn't be willing to sacrifice sales to become Game Pass fodder. It's why indie games, which have shot their sales load already, are what we typically get - the developer calculated that they'd rather take the lump sum from MS.

The quality of releases does make me reconsider whether i'd still be a subscriber once the deals dry up, though. It was a no-brainer "best deal in gaming" for the first few years when you could do the $1 upgrade and the 1:1 XBL conversion, but now we're seeing those loopholes closed, worse XBL conversion rates and even price rises for GPU itself. In future I can see myself doing a mix of buying the games outright and then doing occasional 3 month Game Pass jaunts to play everything on offer for the year.