These Five Games Are Coming To Xbox Game Pass (April 4-18)

The latest official roundup of new titles

by Fraser Gilbert Tue 4th Apr 2023

These Seven Games Are Coming To Xbox Game Pass (April 4-18) — *Image: Ghostwire: Tokyo*

It's time for our first official Xbox Game Pass April 2023 roundup! Microsoft has today announced five games coming to the service in the early-mid part of April, and we already know of two extras as well.

Here's the full list of games coming to Xbox Game Pass in early to mid April, as per Microsoft:

Date	Game	Platform
April 4	Loop Hero	Console, PC
April 6	Iron Brigade	Console, Cloud
April 12	Ghostwire: Tokyo	Console, PC, Cloud
April 13	NHL 23 (EA Play)	Console
April 18	Minecraft Legends	Console, PC, Cloud

The other two that we know of are Goat Simulator, which has been re-added to Xbox Game Pass today after being listed for removal in March, and Everspace 2 which is getting a 1.0 release on PC Game Pass on April 6th.

In addition to these, we'll also be losing seven games from Xbox Game Pass in mid-April, including the likes of Life is Strange: True Colors and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction. Plus, Quantum Break will be temporarily leaving the service at some point in April 2023 as well.

Which of these new Xbox Game Pass titles are you most excited for? Let us know down below.

Fraser is the News Editor at Pure Xbox, where he spends his time reporting on the biggest stories in the world of Xbox and beyond.

1
Deshalu
Tue 4th Apr 2023

Microsoft’s xbox game studios releasing 2 AAA titles in one week.

Redfall releases in a month.

Microsoft is releasing games this year

2
ZuneTattooGuy
Tue 4th Apr 2023

I am weirdly excited for Minecraft Legends, it's right up my alley of the type of laid back gaming I like. Ghostwire Tokyo also looks pretty neat and will be fun to play

3
Balta666
Tue 4th Apr 2023

Loop hero it is quite a nice surprise. Heard great things about it!

4
cburg
Tue 4th Apr 2023

Ghostwire here we come. Should be a nice change since playing Bloodborne and DS3. Need a break from getting beat up all the time.

5
Cherip-the-Ripper
Tue 4th Apr 2023

@cburg you can say that again. Been playing Nioh 2 and Demon's Souls lately.
Can't wait to not die for once.

6
MinervaX
Tue 4th Apr 2023

Wont be jumping in day one, since my work outlook is not looking great (and I predict I might still be halfway through Ghost of Tsushima) but really looking forward to jump on Ghostwire Tokyo.

7
themightyant
Tue 4th Apr 2023

There's some good games here that I am looking forward to this month. Benedict Fox also coming later.

At the same time the number of games being added does seem to be slowing down. I was a sceptic initially when people mentioned it at the start of the year. I assumed it was a brief blip but the reality is three months in a row we've had less than 10 games (9, 9 & 7).

For comparison in the first three months of 2022 it was 16, 15 & 15 games and in the rest of the year no months had less than 12 and three months were over 20 games.

While I still believe it's excellent value, I am concerned that we are getting less than we used to and they are reducing the service rather than putting up prices. Though ultimately quality is better than quantity.

8
awp69
Tue 4th Apr 2023

@themightyant Yeah, quality is better than quantity. We’re getting -The Show ($70), Ghostwire Tokyo ($60) and Minecraft: Legends ($40) and other good games like Loop Hero (also new) this month. How is $170 in new games plus others not a good month?!? It’s a BETTER value than many of those 12 game months. Definitely not “reducing” the service.

But people will always find something to complain about…

9
themightyant
Tue 4th Apr 2023

@awp69 Where did I complain? Just stating a fact. The number of games coming to game pass has declined sharply this year. It's averaging around 8 games per month in 2023, whereas the previous 4 years were 16, 22, 22 & 17 games per month.

I still think it offers excellent value for me, but I am concerned that the number of new titles is shrinking and am flagging it because I don't want to see it keep shrinking. I've seen this happen with other subscription services.

10
Deformedpye
Tue 4th Apr 2023

I'm more than happy with any amount of games that come out. If they release at least 2 day ones it has already paid for itself.

11
AlwaysPlaying
Tue 4th Apr 2023

@themightyant I heard rumors that Microsoft is holding back a large amount of games at the moment. Your stats seem to confirm this. Have no real info though. Just “word on the street”

12
RBRTMNZ
Tue 4th Apr 2023

@themightyant I feel like I am getting my values worth more than ever before. I spent $96 on GP for the year and have already played nearly $200 worth of games. I usually do not exceed the cost of my investment until at least July.

13
Titntin
Tue 4th Apr 2023

Delighted to see Ghostwire here. I have already played it, but I've wanted to see my Xbox friends get their hands on it for some time.
Its a solid 8/10 game, but if you love jap culture and references, and like finding and collecting things, you can definitely add another point. I loved it and as I understand the xbox version has some extras, I'm going to jump back in

14
WBMusic
Tue 4th Apr 2023

Happy with these, Ghostwire should keep me busy until Tears Of The Kingdom drops in May.

15
Shigurui
Tue 4th Apr 2023

Just finished Ghostwire today, great walking sim with a bit of fun combat to flesh it out but good grief, it goes beyond the pale with the sheer amount of collecting spirits. A six hour game padded out with 30+ hours of just picking stuff up.

16
XBOX045
Tue 4th Apr 2023

@RBRTMNZ that is different per person

17
themightyant
Tue 4th Apr 2023

@RBRTMNZ As I said I still think it offers excellent value. But i'm also disappointed that there's around half as many games coming to the service so far this year. Those two statements can both be true. And it does make me slightly worry for the future. My favourite thing about game pass is playing the games I never would have tried otherwise.

@awp69 Fact is I wouldn't have ever paid £60 for Ghostwire Tokyo, or Atomic Heart etc. so I don't look at Game Pass and say that just saved me £120 if I play those two, because I would have just waited till they were nearer £20 in a sale. It still saves me plenty of money, just not as much as you suggest, but more importantly Game Pass lets me try more games risk free. It's brilliant.

@AlwaysPlaying I'd love to believe that is true. I guess only time will tell. But I can't understand why they would be doing that unless, perhaps, they had planned to be releasing Activision & Blizzard games onto the service the last few months, but the deals not yet done.

18
RBRTMNZ
Tue 4th Apr 2023

@XBOX045 Yeah for sure. I was responding to a person describing their current personal experience of Game Pass as a sign of decline.

19
Jenkinss
Tue 4th Apr 2023

@themightyant I much prefer this year's output to 2022. As you said, quality over quantity. The service has always advertised over 100 games, but years of padding out months with shovelware caused the actual number of games to balloon to several times that.

2023: give me more of this because I'm F'ing loving it.

20
themightyant
Wed 5th Apr 2023

@Jenkinss Personally I think there is very little shovelware on Game Pass. The curation is mostly excellent, it's one of the best things about it. I genuinely believe most games deserve to be there on merit, whether it be an indie darling like Immortality, a tiny ID@Xbox game like Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion, or more divisive games like Scorn or High on Life that polarise opinions.

The ones that mostly miss the mark like Trek to Yomi or Somerville you can understand why they were signed up as they showed promise, or have a great art style, but then ultimately were a bit of a let down as a full game. These deals are often done well before the games is finished so there is always an element of luck.

That doesn't mean we will like them all, we all like different things, but it's a really strong foundation.

21
Snake_V5
Wed 5th Apr 2023

Will Ghostwire Tokyo on Game Pass be the version with all the DLC including the new one? I'm sure I heard that from somewhere.

22
Jenkinss
Wed 5th Apr 2023

@themightyant The games you listed are all on the stronger side and not even from the window you specified. Immortality was a GOTY contender released in November. You listed the first 3 months of 2022, taking a look at the first month of January 2022 - Anacrusis, Danganronpa, Pupperazzi, Windjammers 2, Taiko no Tatsuijin, R6 Extraction, Olija, Gorogoa. That's a weak list, you might like a game in there, but it's weak. The rest of the output that month was strong, but not as good as 2023. We can go through Feb and March if you want. Don't cherry pick the best games from the rest of the year though, it's a nonsense argument.

23
themightyant
Wed 5th Apr 2023

@Jenkinss If we're looking at Jan 2022 as you suggested it also had Mass Effect Trilogy Legendary Edition, Hitman Trilogy, Death's Door and Spelunky 2... so who's cherry picking?

Though Olija, Danganronpa, Gorogoa & Windjammers 2 were all excellent games. I didn't play the others.

Personally this year has had far less that interests me. Hi-Fi Rush is the real stand out, others like Goldeneye and Atomic Heart were disappointing imo. But it's not all doom and gloom, there's plenty i'm looking forward to.

But we all like what we like, there is no right and wrong, it's always going to be subjective. What isn't subjective is they have cut the numbers of games almost in half so far this year, that's a fact.

24
Jenkinss
Wed 5th Apr 2023

@themightyant We're talking about the shovelware games padding the service, not the good games. Are you suggesting Mass Effect Trilogy is shovelware? I think something is getting lost in translation here.

25
themightyant
Wed 5th Apr 2023

@Jenkinss My point was I don't think there is much shovelware. Of the games you mentioned only Pupperazi (66) and Rainbox Six extraction (71) scored less than 75 on Metacritic.

Danganronpa (82), Windjammers 2 (80), Gorogoa (84), Olija (78), Taiko no Tatsuijin (78) they may not interest you but that's NOT shovelware. That was my point.

That was on top of ME Trilogy (87), Hitman Trilogy (87), Death's Door (89) and Spelunky 2 (87).

Jan 2022 was an incredible month, one of the best on Game Pass.

Anacrusis was in beta and wasn't reviewed.

26
Jenkinss
Wed 5th Apr 2023

@themightyant It's a bunch of medicore indie turds and Anacrusis was one of the biggest embarrassments on the service, you need a review score to know that? The fact that they've pivoted to less of that, and more big great games like we've seen in 2023, is amazing. Huge, massive W.

27
themightyant
Wed 5th Apr 2023

@Jenkinss As I said we all like different things. But if you think 80+ games are mediocre turds, indie or not, then I don't know what to say.

28
Jenkinss
Wed 5th Apr 2023

@themightyant You can say that MS is pivoting to a much better strategy.

29
themightyant
Wed 5th Apr 2023

@Jenkinss For you perhaps. For me there have been less games I want to play. Still enough to stay subscribed but the value on offer has gone down.

30
Jenkinss
Wed 5th Apr 2023

@themightyant "Where did I complain?" Looks like we found it.

Hopefully they add some more bangers like Anacrusis to get the value back up for you.

31
themightyant
Wed 5th Apr 2023

@Jenkinss LOL. Anacrusis was apparently awful, i'll give you that.

But i'll take more games like Danganronpa, Windjammers 2, Gorogoa & Olija over mediocre larger games like High on Life, Atomic Heart etc.

32
Jenkinss
Wed 5th Apr 2023

@themightyant You are in a tiny, nearly non existent minority on that, and thankfully for the rest of us Microsoft recognizes it. Huge W! (for the rest of us, sorry dude)

33
themightyant
Wed 5th Apr 2023

@Jenkinss As I said we all like different things.

As to a minority? Perhaps. But Metacritic critic scores are higher in those 4 games than High on Life and Atomic Heart so i'm not alone

Enjoy whatever you play. Hopefully they can have a good mix of both, like they used to.

34
Jenkinss
Wed 5th Apr 2023

Perhaps? 🤣

"Squanch Games’ silly sci-fi shooter High On Life is not only the most popular game on Game Pass right now, it’s the biggest Game Pass release of 2022 and the biggest third-party launch in Game Pass history, according to Microsoft. Not content with just two records, High On Life is also the “biggest single-player game launch on Game Pass ever,” based on “the number of hours played in the first five days of release,” Microsoft says."

Hit me with some Windjammers 2 stats, baby. Perhaps, my sides 🤣

35
ymo1965
Wed 5th Apr 2023

Ghostwire is a great game. Own it on PC. It looks great indeed but if you don't like games that get samey or repetitive, you may have an issue. I guess all games can get samey after awhile. You just tend to do the same stuff throught the game, over and over again. Just the way it is I guess.

36
Cherip-the-Ripper
Wed 5th Apr 2023

@Sebatrox samesies, got it with my ps5 around launch so couldn't play it with my xbox buddies.
But the pro clubs sessions boutta be wild next month 🔥
Have fun 😎

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