Xbox Game Pass August 2021 Titles To Download: Hades, Skate 3

After just four months, Grand Theft Auto V is getting delisted from Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft’s games-on-demand service. But its big shoes are getting filled by some heavy hitters, including the one-and-only Hades. Here’s everything coming to Xbox Game Pass in the coming weeks.

August 5

• Curse of the Dead Gods (Cloud, Console, PC)
• Dodgeball Academia (Cloud, Console, PC)
• Katamari Damacy Reroll (Cloud, Console, PC)
• Lumines Remastered (Cloud, Console, PC)
• Skate (Console, via EA Play)
• Skate 3 (Cloud)
• Starmancer, game preview (PC)

August 12

• Art of Rally (Cloud, Console, PC)

August 13

• Hades (Cloud, Console, PC)

As ever with Game Pass, big additions mean big departures. Again, Grand Theft Auto V, a 40-hour game that was only just added to the Game Library in April, will no longer be available on cloud or console after August 8. And the following will leave the service on August 15:

• Ape Out (PC)
• Crossing Souls (PC)
• Darksiders Genesis (Cloud, Console, PC)
• Don’t Starve (Cloud, Console, PC)
• Final Fantasy VII (Console, PC)
• Train Sim World 2020 (Cloud, Console, PC)

Grand Theft Auto V’s sudden departure follows a trend for Rockstar’s games. Last year, Red Dead Redemption 2 spent just four months on the service, which is maybe enough time for power players to run through the whole thing but not nearly enough for average folks to plumb every corner of its sprawling world. The same goes here for GTAV. That said, I suppose everyone who’s wanted to has already played these games to death.

But, hey, that just means more time to play more games. Personally, I’m keen to check out Curse of the Dead Gods, a neat-looking roguelike that’s been on my radar for some time. Plus, it apparently features a Dead Cells tie-in. One can’t have enough Dead Cells.

Still, everything on the docket pales in the Olympian shadow cast by Hades. I played Supergiant’s ridiculously entertaining roguelike on my Switch, mostly handheld. And now, in a matter of days, it’ll be available at 4K 60 fps on my Xbox Series X? Bye-bye, August. You were fun while you lasted.