Has Microsoft already announced the upcoming free Gold games?
Occasionally my mind can come up with theories that make no logical sense, on other occasions these theories are bang on the money. Now before reading further, this entire article is very much born of my mind after having about 4 pints of coffee and it has to be remembered that nothing official has been announced.
To sum it up, this theory has a 50/50 chance of being bang on correct.
We all know that Microsoft is rewarding their fine patrons with 2 free games a month. One of the facts that wasn’t so widely reported was that this is actually a 6 month offer. This becomes more obvious when you do things like reading the small print on the Games with Gold mini-site.
Ok that screenshot makes it a little hard to see so, to save you a trip to Specsavers, it states – Terms & Conditions: *“Games with Gold” bonus games offer available 6/10/13-12/31/13 for paid Gold members only. Each participating Xbox 360 game (selected by Xbox) available for download from Marketplace only during specified half-month window; available games may vary by country. So now we know that Xbox Gold members will be receiving 12 games between now and the New Year – 13 if you count the “bonus” game Fable 3 – but what are they? No one knows, they haven’t been announced. Or have they?
Whilst I was pursuing the Xbox website today looking to see if there was any DLC for my games I stumbled across a very interesting page.
http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/classics
On this page are a number of titles – 17 to be exact – that Microsoft has deemed the Classics Collection; Tekken 6, Kinect Rush, Rabbids: Alive & Kicking, Rayman Origins, Crysis 2, Deux Ex Human Revolution, Fallout: New Vegas, Far Cry 2, Gears of War 2, Halo 3, Splinter Cell Conviction, Bulletstorm, Dead Island, Assassins Creed 2, Burnout Paradise, Dragon Age 2 and Your Shape Fitness 2012.
Now I know what you are thinking. 17 is much higher than 12. This is where I need you to take a leap of faith with me. If we remove the fitness game from the list as well as the three titles that Microsoft have branded “Family” titles (Kinect Rush, Rabbids: Alive & Kicking, Rayman Origins) we are now left with 13 titles.
Yes, yes I know. It’s still more than 12but there is two ways of looking at this. Firstly Microsoft could offer an extra “bonus” game to celebrate launch day of the Xbox One, or even give an extra game away as a Christmas present.
The more likely option in my opinion is that one of these 13 titles is dropped – my money is on Tekken 6 – leaving us with 12 games in this list, which is the exact number Microsoft have announced they are giving away for free. This entire theory is strengthened by the fact that the two titles that we know we are getting in July are included in this collection – Assassins Creed 2 and Halo 3.
Yes, I could be talking a lot of drivel here and there may be a few too many ifs and buts for some peoples liking (Leave a comment with your thoughts) but if it’s ok with you I think I’m going to leave buying any of these 12 games until the new year.
Tags: classics, colelction, games with gold, gold, live, Microsoft, xbox, Xbox 360
Interesting theory, and I really hope you’re right. There are a number of games on there I wouldn’t mind playing.
Fable 3 is the first game with gold, and it’s not in that classic list
D5120 – Couldn’t agree more, I have very few of them as well
Dario – If you look at the link to Games with Gold on the Xbox site it’s link is a picture of Fable 3 with the heading “Grab your Bonus Game now”. This is why I didn’t class fable 3 as part of the theory as Microsoft seem to be counting it as a warm up to the event rather than it be part of the Games with Gold offer
That’s a solid theory, couple of games I’d pick up there!
They did say during the press briefing that it was a 6 month offer.
I hope that’s not the list though, they’ve had the classics range for a while it’s usually reserved for titles that sell a certain amount like Sony’s Platinum selection.
Well, I guess THAT blows the theory out of the water. Just had another watch of the games with gold announcement and have to say well played MS. a very strategic use of words and images (I’ve done the same in presentations). MS have done nothing that they didn’t announce at E3 but I am waiting for the internet to explode now.
wrong first game of july is arcade and not on the list but good theory
First two games were Halo 3 and Assassin’s Creed 2, both games on that list… I hope that this theory is correct. Wouldn’t mind having some of those games for free!
Yes, this is a good theory but the first game was arcade. It would be cool to have far cry 2
i realy hope dead island gets free im gonna need a bigger hd
Sadly your theory seems to have petered out with Crackdown being the august 1st game and Dead Rising 2 for Aug 16th… Nice try though.
1st of the month will be arcade games. 16th will be title games.
so far we’ve had:
Fable 3 – bonus
Defense Grid: The awakening – not sure
Assasins Creed 2 – classic
Crackdown – classic
DeadRising 2 – i dont think its a classic
Magic 2013 – not classic
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Vegas – classic
Halo 3 – classic – confirmed
so this theory seems partly possible but just other titles in the classic series