We go over which games Microsoft has serviced over the past twelve months, how much they were worth when they came out, and what their average marks are.
As we did in the article “PlayStation Plus in 2020, has it been worth it?”, It is time to analyze how Microsoft’s Games With Gold have performed. It is therefore time to review what games have been given with the service, how much they were worth when they entered it and what is their average score in Metacritc. An accumulation of figures that will allow us to check if it has improved (or worsened) compared to 2019 and that also serve to know what we can expect in 2021. But step by step. The first thing is to remember all the Xbox Live Games With Gold games month by month.
- January 2020 – Styx: Shards of Darkness, Tekken 6 (Xbox 360), Batman: The Telltale Series and Lego Star Wars 2: The Original Trilogy (Xbox 360).
- February 2020 – Fable Heroes (Xbox 360), TT Isle of Man, Call of Cthulhu, and Star Wars Battlefront (Xbox).
- March 2020 – Castlevania: Lords of Shadows 2 (Xbox 360), Batman: The Enemy Within, Sonic Generations (Xbox 360) and Shantae: Half-Genie Hero.
- April 2020 – Fable Anniversary (Xbox 360), Project Cars 2, Toybox Turbos (Xbox 360), and Knights of Pen and Paper Bundle.
- May 2020 – Sensible World of Soccer (Xbox 360), V-Rally 4, Warhammer 40,000 Inquisitor – Martyr and Overlord 2 (Xbox 360).
- June 2020 – Destroy All Humans! (Xbox), Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse, Sine Mora (Xbox 360) and Coffe Talk.
- July 2020 – Saint’s Row 2 (Xbox 360), WRC 8 FIA World Rally Championship, Dunk Lords and Juju (Xbox 360).
- August 2020 – MX Unleashed (Xbox), Portal Knights, Red Faction 2 (Xbox), and Override: Mech City Brawl.
- September 2020 – from Blob 2 (Xbox 360), Tom Clancy’s The Division, The Book of the Unwritten Tales 2, and Armed and Dangerous (Xbox).
- October 2020 – Slayaway Camp: Butcher’s Cut, Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy (Xbox), Costume Quest (Xbox 360), Maid of Sker
- November 2020 – Aragami: Shadow Edition, Full Spectrum Warrior (Xbox), Lego Indiana Jones (Xbox 360), and Swimsanity.
- December 2020 – Saint’s Row: Gat Out the Hell (Xbox 360), The Raven Remastered, Bleed 2 and Stacking (Xbox 360).
More games than PS Plus, but older
The first thing to highlight is the total number of games, 75, well above what PlayStation Plus has offered, which remained at 28. Sony’s service usually “gives away” only two PS4 games each month, but Microsoft continues maintaining a quartet that also includes two Xbox 360 games and, from time to time, replaces one of them with another from the original Xbox (this year there have been a total of seven first-generation Xbox titles: Star Wars Battlefront, Destroy All Humans !, MX Unleashed, Red Faction 2, Armed and Dangerous, Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy and Full Spectrum Warrior). This has a clear advantage (more games) and a disadvantage: the average age of the titles that are given. On Xbox they have an average lifespan of 6 years and 10 months (!), For the 2 years and 4 months of PS4 and PS5 games. And it would be necessary to study in depth to what extent that age is really due to the games of past generations and to what extent they serve as an excuse to cover the age of the Xbox One titles. Because this 2020 we have had things as “current” as The Division (with 4 and a half years behind him) or Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse (with another 4 years). Although we see both sides of the coin and we do not forget Swimsanity! (given with 4 months of age), Maid of Sker (with 2) or Coffe Talk (of just 6 months). On the subject of antiquity it is one of lime and another of sand.
Microsoft saves a few euros
The median price of the games given by Microsoft is $ 22.56, adding up to $ 1,083 in total at the end of the year. A higher figure than Sony’s ($ 789.72), but only because Games with Gold has produced more games. If we analyze them individually, the value of the gifts of the Japanese company was around $ 28.20. In other words, once again, quality does not equal quantity. Having given more than twice as many games, his would have been a proportional difference in the total sum. A slap on the wrist over here. As for the overlap of Gold and Xbox Game Pass, those of Redmond have been attentive and have achieved that only one of the game given away, Fable Anniversary, was previously in the subscription service. Of course, there are five others who were temporarily, but it was between 2018 and 2019, long ago. Less attention has been paid to PlayStation Now, where 17 of the games on the list are. We were clear that the Games with Gold library is not a differential value for users who only have Sony platforms, but that data reaffirms it. And to close, a curiosity. The developer that has contributed the most (even more than Xbox Game Studios) is THQ. Between its classics and the new products of its ghost, THQ Nordic, there are 9 launches. Come on, that two and a half months this has been THQ with Gold.
