Xbox announced several new games coming to its Xbox Game Pass during its E3 showcase. In fact, out of everything shown at the Xbox/Bethesda E3 show, 31 games are coming to Xbox Game Pass on the same day they launch - which means more of the games are coming to Game Pass than not.
Microsoft has been heavily investing in Game Pass for years. Phil Spencer has gone on record to say the Bethesda acquisition was solely to boost the profile of Game Pass, and had previously hinted that future Bethesda games will be Xbox-exclusive. So it’s not a surprise that a large percentage of the games that are coming to Xbox are also coming to Xbox Game Pass at launch.
However, not every game that’s coming to Xbox is coming to Game Pass, and there are a few games revealed or discussed at the show that were not confirmed as coming to Game Pass on day one. Keep in mind that these games could still come to Game Pass at some point in the future, but they weren’t revealed as day-one launches during the E3 event.
Battlefield 2042 Might Come to EA Play After Launch
Electronic Arts’ new entry in the Battlefield series has been confirmed for PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. This is one of the most surprising omissions from Xbox Game Pass because most EA games are available on that service after the EA Play subscription service merged with Game Pass. You can get both of them with the same subscription.
But it’s likely that EA would not want users to have to pay a subscription fee in order to play their game. Battlefield 2042 has no single-player campaign, so its success is going to rest on how many players it can get right from the start, and it’s likely EA wants to keep the game as accessible as possible.
Diablo 2: Resurrected Will Be On Xbox But Not Game Pass at Launch
Blizzard revealed Diablo II: Resurrected's September release date at the Xbox E3 Show with a new trailer. It shows off the gameplay of the remaster of the classic dungeon crawler - which sports new graphics but otherwise closely resembles the original game - and how it will look on the Xbox Series X/S. According to the trailer, while it won't launch on Game Pass, it will be optimized for the next-gen Xbox consoles, with 4K resolution and the ability to run at up to 60 FPS. It will also have cross-progression between PC and consoles via the player’s Battle.net account.
Far Cry 6 Will Launch On Ubisoft+ Instead of Xbox Game Pass
Ubisoft showed Far Cry 6 at its Ubisoft Forward event, and a second gameplay trailer was shown at the Xbox & Bethesda presentation. Ubisoft’s next big sandbox title is coming to next-gen and current-gen consoles (except the Switch), but it’s not going to be a day one launch on Game Pass. There are no Far Cry games on Game Pass yet, so its absence isn't a huge surprise.
Out of all the games shown at the event that aren’t coming to Game Pass, this is the one that makes the most sense. Ubisoft is trying to get its own subscription service, Ubisoft+, off the ground, which will be available via Stadia and Luna in addition to PC. There is a rumor that Ubisoft+ will come to Xbox Game Pass like EA Play, but until that’s confirmed, there's no way to know for sure.
Given that E3 expanded day-one Game Pass titles to 31, there should be more than enough to keep subscribers busy, but any of these games could potentially still be added to Xbox Game Pass in the future.