Xbox will remove eight games from Game Pass on July 31, among them the platformer Celeste and the grand strategy game Crusader Kings 3. Polygon reports that the list was posted to the Leaving Soon page on the Xbox Cloud Gaming site over the weekend, and was first spotted by Pure Xbox.
The full list of departures, and the platforms each currently covers, is as follows.
- Back to the Dawn — console, PC, cloud
- Celeste — console, PC, cloud
- Crusader Kings 3 — console, PC, cloud
- Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord — console, PC, cloud
- My Friendly Neighborhood — console, PC, cloud
- Rain World — console, PC, cloud
- Sniper Elite: Resistance — console, PC, cloud
- Whiskerwood — PC
Celeste and Crusader Kings 3 are the longest-serving of the eight. Celeste released in 2018 and was on Game Pass from 2020 to 2021 before returning to the service in 2023. Crusader Kings 3 has been available on the subscription since September 2020. Polygon also singles out the survival platformer Rain World and the strategy game Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord among the notable losses.
This is the second wave of removals this month. Ten titles left on July 15, including Shadow of the Tomb Raider Definitive Edition, Stellaris and Powerwash Simulator. That brings the July total to 18 games removed from the service, up from 13 in June.
A turbulent month for Xbox
Polygon sets the removals against a wider period of upheaval at Xbox. The company carried out a wave of layoffs and studio cuts on July 6, accompanied by a lengthy post from chief executive Asha Sharma outlining a new direction for the division. Game Pass was not addressed directly in that post, but Polygon reports that day-one first-party releases on the service appear to be being phased out.
The subscription is reported to have lost millions of subscribers over the past year following an October 2025 price increase. Xbox subsequently lowered the price of Game Pass Ultimate slightly and announced a cheaper, pared-down tier of the service.
Titles rotating out of a subscription catalogue is routine in itself, and the scale of this month’s removals is only modestly above June’s. What sets it apart is the timing: the second wave lands in the same month as the layoffs and the strategy reset, and it takes two of the service’s longest-standing critical highlights with it.
Join the conversation — sign in to comment.
Sign in