Skip to main content

Xbox Games With Gold program showers subscribers with free games in December

Xbox - December Games with Gold
If you’re low on cash after buying gifts for your family this holiday season, you’ll still have plenty of great games to play on your Xbox One. Microsoft has revealed the free games Xbox Live Gold subscribers will receive next month through the Games With Gold program, and it looks like the year will end on a very good note.

For the entire month of December, Xbox One owners will be able to download Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition for free. The crime adventure, set in Hong Kong, uses a great hand-to-hand combat system and a voice cast that includes Emma Stone, and serves as a successor to the earlier True Crime series.

From December 16 until January 15, Xbox One owners will also be able to download Outlast. The horror game, which is receiving a sequel next year, was one of the bright spots during an otherwise rocky launch for the current generation of consoles, and comes close to perfecting the combat-free horror we’ve seen in games like Amnesia and Slender.

Xbox 360 owners will have access to two very well-received games, as well, and as with all Xbox 360 games included in the program, they are fully playable on Xbox One. Outland, one of the few Xbox games made by developer Housemarque, is available from December 1 until December 15. Its gorgeous art design and combat resemble the action-platformer Strider, which saw its latest entry made free through PlayStation Plus in 2014.

Lastly, Xbox Live Gold members will be able to snag Burnout: Paradise from December 16 until the end of 2016. The racing game originally released in 2008 to rave reviews, with many praising the evolution of the series as well as developer Criterion’s take on open-world design. Since then, Criterion has also developed the acclaimed Need for Speed: Most Wanted before canceling an action-racing project this year.

What do you think about December’s freebies? Is it enough to keep you paying for Xbox Live? Let us know in the comments!

Editors' Recommendations

Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
The best upcoming Xbox Series X games: 2023 and beyond
Two Atlas Fallen characters stand together in key art.

The Xbox Series X and Series S have now been out for over two years, bringing better resolution, higher frame rates, and ray tracing to gamers around the world. And the upcoming Xbox Series X games on this list promise to continue to show off all those bells and whistles in fun, new experiences.

If you're eager to find out what Microsoft has in store for the years ahead, we've rounded up every game confirmed so far, including new offerings, franchise installments, and ports of existing titles. We're looking beyond the first-party projects here to encompass all the great games coming to this powerful piece of gaming hardware. Maybe some of them will end up being among the best games on Xbox Series X.
Confirmed 2023 releases
The games listed below either have 100% confirmed release dates or solid release windows that we expect them to hit this year. Anything that's up in the air due to more vague launch predictions or previous delays will be listed under the following header.

Read more
Your Xbox Live Gold subscription will turn into Xbox Game Pass Core this September
Xbox Game Pass Core's logo over a library of games.

Microsoft finally made the decision to move on from its monthly online-access subscription service Xbox Live Gold. On September 14, Xbox Live Gold will transform into Xbox Game Pass Core, with current Gold subscribers automatically gaining a Game Pass Core subscription.

An Xbox Live subscription tied to online play has existed in some form since Xbox Live launched in 2002, but Xbox Live Gold as we now know it truly came into form in July 2013 when Microsoft started the Games with Gold program that gave subscribers free games each month in addition to that online access. Although Microsoft rolled back some online restrictions in 2021, Games with Gold continues to this day. That will all end when Game Pass Core launches.

Read more
We ranked all the best (and worst) video game system startup sounds
The GameCube startup screen appears mid animation.

First impressions are important. That’s true both in people and video game consoles.

The first time you boot up a new gaming system can be a magical moment when done right. There’s always a built-in bit of tension anytime you get a new video game console, as you gingerly unbox it and set it up. That prelude can feel like an orchestra tuning its instruments, building anticipation for the moment where you’ll finally get to power it on and hear the opening notes of a long symphony. And I’m not just speaking in metaphor here; I’m talking about the all-important console startup sound.

Read more