Microsoft has announced the Xbox Games with Gold lineup for April 2021 and it's the weakest one yet. There's wide speculation that the Games with Gold concept has taken a backseat to Xbox Game Pass, as the titles on offer more and more frequently seem like an afterthought.
Xbox Games with Gold is perceived to be regularly shown up by PlayStation Plus, which gave away Final Fantasy 7 Remake in March and is set to make Oddworld: Soulstorm free next in April. PS5 users also have access to the PlayStation Plus Collection, which contains some of the best-reviewed games of the PS4 era. PlayStation Plus, while also imperfect, has kept a steady stream of great titles coming since the launch of the PS5, while Xbox Games with Gold has grown in disappointment among players as the months have gone on.
According to the official Xbox website, the Xbox Games with Gold are Dark Void and Vikings: Wolves of Midgard from April 1, and Hard Corps: Uprising and Truck Racing Championship from April 16. Dark Void is a third-person shooter from the PS3/Xbox 360 generation that had a middling response and doesn't exactly have a cult following. Hard Corps: Uprising is the easily best game of the bunch, being a decently received entry in the Contra series. Truck Racing Championship more or less speaks for itself, while Vikings: Wolves of Midgard is an action RPG about Vikings with an acceptable Metacritic score of 66.
The April lineup for Xbox Games with Gold is laughably bad, but then, it doesn't need to be good. Microsoft had a stellar Xbox Game Pass lineup the previous month, bringing 20 Bethesda games arriving on the service. Game Pass also received a day-one release for Octopath Traveler, as well as games like Empire of Sin and Yakuza 6. The service has also secured a day-one tandem launch for Outriders on April 1, which is a highly anticipated title that will be full-price on other systems. Outriders on Xbox Game Pass alone washes away the bad taste left by this month's Games with Gold.
Microsoft recently removed the Xbox Live requirement for free-to-play titles in what's likely the start of a shake-up for its online services. A further sign is that after nearly 20 years, Xbox Live was also rebranded as Xbox network, seeming to deemphasize the original Xbox online subscription model's lasting importance. It's possible that Xbox Games with Gold could be replaced entirely by Xbox Game Pass's own periodic drops, and months like this prove that it could be time to retire the service.
Source: Xbox