Xbox has detailed the games joining Game Pass in the first half of August 2026, with early access to the Gears of War: E-Day open beta as the headline addition. Xbox Wire said the beta opens on August 6 for Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers and includes Horde Siege, a player-versus-environment wave survival mode the publisher describes as built for larger maps and more players than previous Gears co-op modes.
The wave also carried a day-one release. Beast of Reincarnation, an action role-playing game from Pokémon developer Game Freak, arrived on the service on August 4. Polygon, which reported the full lineup, said the game's critical reception has so far been mixed, and its own reviewer praised the combat while finding the game's identity unsettled.
Coming to Game Pass in August
- Beast of Reincarnation — August 4 (Ultimate, PC Game Pass)
- Heretic + Hexen — August 4
- Monsters are Coming! — August 6
- PowerWash Simulator 2 — August 6
- Bounty Star — August 11
- Date Everything! — August 11
- Grounded 2 (Game Preview) — August 11
- Ball x Pit — August 12
- Cricket 26 — August 13
- Mio: Memories in Orbit — August 13
- Sandustry (Game Preview) — August 13
- Egging On — August 18
Several of the additions reach Game Pass Premium first before joining Ultimate and PC Game Pass, according to Xbox's listing. Sandustry, like Beast of Reincarnation, is a day-one release, and Heretic + Hexen arrives as a restoration of the two id Software shooters with wider platform and language support.
Leaving on August 15
Four titles drop off the service in the middle of the month: Menace (Game Preview) on PC, and Atlas Fallen, Aliens: Fireteam Elite and Firewatch across cloud, console and PC.
Xbox also flagged an EA Play early access trial for EA Sports Madden NFL 27 from August 6, offering up to 10 hours of play to Ultimate and PC Game Pass members with EA Play, and a free in-game bundle covering Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Call of Duty: Warzone.
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