Xbox Live sunsets almost a decade of Xbox 360 giveaways in September with Portal 2. Starting October, Games With Gold will only be offering Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers access to Xbox One and Xbox Series X titles.
Valve’s Portal 2, which launched on Xbox 360 in April 2011, hardly needs much introduction. The puzzle-platformer is the sequel to 2007’s Portal, which showed up as a Games With Gold selection in June 2019 with Portal: Still Alive (a version with extra puzzles).
Curiously, the other throwback console title offered in September is Thrillville, which is an original Xbox title. It was among the last batch of 76 Xbox and Xbox 360 titles made backward compatible (with Xbox One and Xbox Series X) in November, which effectively ended that campaign begun in 2015. The last original Xbox title offered by Games With Gold, before September, was Conker: Live & Reloaded in July 2021.
Microsoft announced Xbox 360 games’ retirement from Games With Gold in July, saying the program had “reached the limit of our ability to bring Xbox 360 games to the catalogue.” But players who claimed these games may continue to download, keep, and play them, regardless of whether they maintain an active Xbox Live Gold subscription.
The two Xbox One selections for September are 2021’s dark fantasy action game Gods Will Fall, and 2020’s unusual Double Kick Heroes, an indie title that combines the rhythm game and shoot-’em-up genres.
Here are the games and their availability windows:
- Gods Will Fall ($14.99 ERP): Sept. 1-30.
- Double Kick Heroes ($21.99 ERP): Sept. 16-Oct. 15.
- Thrillville ($9.99 ERP): Sept. 1-15.
- Portal 2 ($19.99): Sept. 16-30.
In addition to these games, subscribers can still get three of August’s Games with Gold: Calico for Xbox One and Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine for Xbox 360, until Aug 31, and ScourgeBringer for Xbox One until Sept. 15.
