

That said, Xbox Game Pass is definitely the dominant force in the subscription service game right now. And for right now, there is more *new* on offer from its competitors than Xbox Game Pass. The downside of that it is a relatively short game, not something fans can sink their teeth into in the coming weeks. High on Life recently dropped on Xbox Game Pass, beating out Minecraft and Forza Horizon 5 in popularity, and being one of the biggest additions of the year. It should be said that this end-of-year whimper comes from the number of games offered mostly, not the quality. That's no disrespect to the game, but its competition is Death Stranding on EGS (as well as more on the way for the end of the year) and franchises like Yakuza, Far Cry, and Middle-Earth on PS Plus. The final addition to Xbox Game Pass this year was, underwhelmingly, Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan on December 15. This is while similar services like PlayStation Plus Extra dropped a bunch of games on December 20, and Epic Games Store's free mystery game promotion is well underway.

Many noticed when the Xbox Game Pass game announcement for the second half of December was late, with some thinking it was going to be announced near the end of the normal week of instead of the start, but it has been recently confirmed that no more games are coming in the second half of the month.
