Xbox Live Games with Gold doesn’t put its best foot forward to welcome Xbox Series X

PlayStation wins this round

There’s an inevitable comparison between every month’s PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold games. Sometimes it’s a knock-down drag-out war, as it’s tough to declare a definitive winner. This month, it’s a massacre.

Yesterday, Sony revealed Bugsnax, Hollow Knight, and Middle-earth: Shadow of War as the three PS Plus games that will welcome the PS5’s arrival. Today, Xbox announced its Games with Gold, and none of the four freebies live up to any single game in PlayStation’s lineup. 

Here’s the Games with Gold offerings that ushers in the Xbox Series X: Stealth platformer Arigami, underwater shooter Swimsanity, original Xbox tactics game Full Spectrum Warrior, and LEGO Indiana Jones (which I admittedly have nostalgic love for).

The problem is that Xbox Game Pass is cannibalizing any real value that Games with Gold could offer. Game Pass is a tremendous service that has near-universal love. But it has impacted Games with Gold to the point where we’re left wondering why it even exists anymore. At this rate, it can’t be long before Microsoft just kills it altogether and makes Xbox Live Gold perks free or rolls them into various Game Pass tiers.

Here’s the full breakdown of November’s Games with Gold:

• Arigami: Shadow Edition (Xbox One, available November 1 through November 30)
• Swimsanity (Xbox One, available November 16 through December 15)
• Full Spectrum Warrior (original Xbox, available November 1 through November 15)
• LEGO Indiana Jones (Xbox 360, available November 16 through November 30)