This week"s Xbox Free Play Days event is a little bit different. One of the games on this weekend"s list, Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition, is completely free to play for any Xbox members. That means you don"t have to have an Xbox Game Pass Core or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription to play the historical RTS game from developer Relic.
Xbox Wire says that the game will remain free to play until Sunday, February 4 at 11:59 pm Eastern time. You can also buy the game at a discounted price on the Microsoft Store for just $31.99. Earlier this week, Microsoft announced a major streaming event for the entire Age of Empires series on Feb. 23, where the company will outline its update plans for Age of Empires II, III, and IV in 2024, along with first looks at Age of Empires: Mobile and the long-awaited Age of Mythology: Retold remake.
Two more games will be free to play this weekend for Xbox Game Pass Core and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members this weekend as well. One is One Piece Odyssey from publisher Bandai Namco based on the popular anime series. It"s also discounted this weekend to just $23.99 on the Microsoft Store.
The other game Xbox Game Pass players can check out for free is Gord from developer Covenant.dev and publisher Team17. Based on Slavic mythology, the game has you trying to build and manage a village that"s under attack by creatures. Unfortunately, there"s no discount for Gord this weekend but you can still buy it after the free play period ends this weekend for $34.99 at the Xbox Store.
We are still waiting to see which games will be added and subtracted on Microsoft"s Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass list for the first half of February. We did learn earlier this week that the Xbox Game Pass launch of Palworld in mid-January brought in seven million players and was the biggest third-party game launch in Game Pass history.