Talking Point: What January 2023 Xbox Games With Gold Do You Want?

Lol, what’s the point of this? Literally no games that anyone will list will be offered, and everyone is just going to be angrily commenting on how awful GWG is. Keep expectations low and best case we’re all surprised.

There have been a lot of posts lately that seem determined to kick the hornet’s nest and get everyone agitated.

@FraserG I understand, but March 2020 was a very different time for the service. Maybe a different approach to this monthly piece (one that doesn't stoke so many negative flames) would be a better approach. Just my two cents.

@themightyant Ha, back at you. And if I do we're going to have a "Spider-Men pointing at each other" meme situation

You're setting yourself up for disappointment if you expect anything more than what we have been getting.

If you keep an open mind and try each one you will probably discover a decent game here and there. If you want AAA games or hit indies then you have the wrong subscription, get gamepass.

I stopped caring about Games with Gold a LONG time ago, mainly for these reasons:

a) I own well over 1.500 games for Xbox

Any game that isn't indie

I haven't bothered adding any of the GwG games to my Library to 'never' get downloaded, let alone ever played with such a big Backlog of games I'd rather play, as well as access to hundreds of games on Game Pass.

I'd be very surprised if we get ANY games that I want to play more than the 100's of games I still haven't found the time to play.

I can understand why MS may want to offer games like those we have been seeing - games that many people haven't even tried or 'noticed' releasing, games that help small studios to reach more people. I know we would all like AAA games (but then some will have bought these if they really wanted to play) or even some of the 'indies' that more people were aware of.

You can't please everyone all of the time but I do think they could at least do 'better'. I don't know if they have an issue putting games like Ori, Forza, Halo etc into Gold if they are on Game Pass. It seems that way as those games wouldn't benefit GP subscribers as they could play them anyway.

I am not expecting to add any games with Gold to my Library in 2023 so if they do add a game I deem worthy enough to add, its a bonus rather than continuously being disappointed.

I want 360 and original Xbox games back. 😡

Bladed Fury was a great surprise. I really like it. I'm in the mood for some 2D platformer/Metroidvania kind of game, so anything like that would be cool. Or maybe some roguelite.

@FraserG

Well, according to TrueAchievements, I have played 1.742 games (across all platforms) so far.

I usually ignore this every month buuuut......Renegade Ops and the Dishwasher. This would be a great time to add some forgotten but awesome games from the old XBLA days. Throw in Bastion too while you're at it lol

I for one will go with a port-begging GwG ask. I think an Xbox port of PlayStation's "Stroke the Kitty" and Switch's "Calculator" would really set the tone for the year of GwG games early on!

Mundaun, Tunic, Boyfriend Dungeon, Exo One or Othercide...

@Echtzeit keeping going, you've nearly played 2 whole games 👍

@NEStalgia They'll maybe start with clock and work their way up to calculator.

I'd rather see what little money they seem to put into GWG now go into licensing more OG Xbox & 360 games to make backwards compatible. It still baffles me they say they 'reached the limit of games feasibly possible' when they have examples like Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed available, but not the first game which has Banjo-Kazooie in it, which they put a big emphasis on for that game to the point where they replace Tails on the cover.

I just want SpongeBob SquarePants battle for bikini bottom rehydrated

It's not even on Microsoft, it's on the publishers and IP owners so I don't even get upset over it any longer.

I was pleasantly surprised with Colt Canyon.

However...I really wise they'd go back to adding of Xbox and 360 games. Even if it's a repeat as I jumped back into the Xbox ecosystem with XSX and of course missed most of the BC games that were given through GwG.a