June Games with Gold: Five Great Games for Xbox One and Xbox 360

With June officially kicking off soon, Xbox Live Gold members are especially prosperous with a total of five free games on Xbox One and Xbox 360. As Head of Xbox Phil Spencer recently announced, June’s system update will debut Games with Gold on Xbox One, with two great games – “Max: The Curse of Brotherhood” and “Halo: Spartan Assault.” And on Xbox 360, members will receive “Dark Souls,” “Charlie Murder” and the bonus game “Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition.” No matter what, you're in for a good time so make sure you get in on the action!

[Cherchez La Ghost]

Not bad....., not bad at all. And after watching Assassin's Fist, I want to get a Street Fighter game.

[DonDon]

I'm not known to be much of a fan of Microsoft, but I just had to post this article. They really did step up their game BIG TIME with the free games this month. But if it wasn't for Sony, MS would have never given any games away at all. Sony sets the trend, MS follows. Either way, everyone wins.

[gamerfan0909]

Giving away free games isn't some novel idea. Steam was doing it way before anyone. Besides the entire reason PSN exists and PS+ even has free games is because XBL's popularity and to undercut XBL's service seller features.

[shinrock]

And we keep what we download.

[xx4xx]

Your last sentence is what is spot on.

The more heated the competition, the better the deals gamers get.

Microsoft needs to claw their way back and all signs point to that as their gameplan. Gold member upgrades, Kinect-less sku, etc.

Want to know how heated the competition is going to get?.... watch this year's E3. I try to keep my hype levels down, but i really think this year is going to be crazy. All the rumors point to Microsoft having a crazy lineup planned for their E3 show....Sony has to have heard that as well...I expect Sony to have an amazing show too. They may have the lead, but they can't stand pat.

Less thank 2 weeks away...it's going to be interesting.

[darthv72]

Sorry gamerfan but yes...giving away free games IS a novel idea in the console world. just because it has been done on the PC does not apply in this situation.

@shinrock...you only get to keep those that are on the 360. XB1 GwG is now like the PS+ where you need to have an account to keep playing the free games. The account expires then so does access to those games.

@DonDon, sony couldnt compete with MS in the quality of service dept so they did what they had to do. Giving away games as part of your membership seemed like a logical decision to get more people to pay for the service. They certainly werent making very much $ from members prior to that change. Simply because early PS+ was more of a discount service than anything substantial.

I always said sony would change their policy regarding their online, to be a paid service. They went one step further with the inclusion of giveaways to keep members enticed to remain members and offset the inconvenience of paying to play online (for the PS4 at least).

both services are after the all mighty $ and will find ways to get people to sign up and stay members.

[PunisherRevenge]

@DonDon......lol how soon you guys forget. Do you even remember why PS plus even exist? The only reason Sony even started doing this is because of the PSN hack that happened a couple years ago. DO you really think Sony just one day called a meeting and said: Hey guys, you know what would be a great idea? Lets start giving games away for free because we love our fans so much....LOL no that didn't happen. It happened because they f***ed up and lost millions of peoples data.

[bleedsoe9mm]

thats what happens when a company is trying to fight back from a disastrous beginning of a gen like the ps3 . competition is great for all consumers !

[Phoenix76]

@marcel you do know that Sony were giving away free games through PS+ long before the now infamous hack. They just offered both members and non members access to 5 free game as way of saying sorry for what happened afterwards.
PS+ will be 4 years old in June. The hack only happened roughly 2.5 year ago.

[Volkama]

Meanwhile rumour has it Sony will be discussing some huge improvements to their network infrastructure next week, which is something MS are way ahead on. Improvements all round, let's all thank everyone else and then hand over our money.

[mhunterjr]

If Sony's PSN wasn't getting hammered by Xbox live ps+ wouldn't exist. Competition is forcing both companies to innovate. Open your eyes.

[ZodTheRipper]

That's definately better than the last few months ...now the question is whether they can keep this up or whether it's just for E3.

[Goro]

"Sony sets the trend, MS follows."
http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/st...

[zero_gamer]

If it wasn't for MS PlayStation wouldn't have the trophy system or a gaming network half as good as XBL. See how competition works? Either way, everyone wins.

[Gamer1982]

Big games in time for E3?? The only time they had games of this calibre?? No doubt so they can brag at E3 but hell do we care?? NOPE cause gamers win!

[its_JEFF]

@shinrock

Not for the X-1. It's just like PS+ now. The reason they couldn't give you better games in the past was because you owned it 100%.

[mikeslemonade]

Still this does not compare to plus. These games are older than the plus games. Xbox loses to PlayStation once again.

[DLConspiracy]

Come on man. Yes We all win, but it was a business strategy. XBL was selling their service which included free chat with a silver membership even. They were putting all that money into the servers to keep XBL chugging along. PSN did it free and everyone raved about that until they realized you get what you pay for. So to undercut the competition and still make money for their own servers (they still need)they offered free games with the PS+ service. Which I can almost guarantee you that they basically throw some money at when someone downloads it.

They need servers for chat too. It takes a lot of servers to run streaming chat well. Which I have noticed it doesn't sound as clear on PSN right now. It may be some time before it is as clear as XBL. That's a widely under appreciated feature on XBL and over looked on PSN. The quality is different.

As part of the cost of PS+. However it would also make sense if most of that money would go to pay for those "free" games. Also the servers but not nearly as much as XBL has had a chance to blow on over the last 8 years. So both have their advantages. Unfortunately while PS+ is great for 'free' games. It's also lacking in other online areas like servers. I pay for the service to get free games on PS+ where I pay for XBL for all the other stuff. Now, XBL also offers free games with gold. Even better. It's the best of both worlds.

[Deadpoolio]

@shinrock you do know that games with gold doesn't get to keep what you download anymore right? It's being changed to exactly what PS+ is.

[Evilsnuggle]

How can you fanBoys be so stupid? You guys are bragging one Microsoft changing you money for playing games online how silly is that. The reason that PS4 gamers are paying for online gaming is because of xbox gamers. I own both 360 and PS3 I had xbox live gold as soon as I got my PS3 I cancelled my gold because PSN is free. I know that Sony was going to have to change for PSN because they couldn't not compete with xbox live gold. Because xbox live had more cash to bride developers. How is that good for gamers. PSN + is Sony way to not upset their customers by adding value for paying to play online. This is some fanBoy fantasy that xbox live gold is some how better than PSN. Microsoft nor Sony has control over Internet speed or connections is your IP provider. Foolish fanBoys

DLConspiracy@
You have no idea what you are taking about . You can voice chat on PSN just like xbox live what are you talking about. There is no lack of servers on PSN. you have no idea what you're talking about

zero_gamer@
There's no difference in xbox live gold and PSN . you obviously have never played on PSN

[k3rn3ll]

The trend setting thing goes back and forth. Until ps+... every online functionalfunctionality had already been used by MS. For god sake how long did it take sony to get cross game party chat? Seven Years or so? But yes they did set the bar for giving away games on consoles ill give u that much.

@evilsnuggle
And their network infrastructure suffered as a whole for it. Btw PS+ is going down again for "construction" like six hours. Never ever happens on live

[Kingthrash360]

All this back and forth from you guys gets me dizzy.
How's bout we all thank Atari for pioneering consoles to begin with and end all this childish bickering on who dun what first.

[kreate]

'And we keep what we download'

thumbs up!

'XB1 GwG is now like the PS+ where you need to have an account to keep playing the free games. The account expires then so does access to those games'

thumbs down...

*I don't want games on gwg that I already got on ps plus a year ago like street fighter, or last month's saints row game, defeats the purpose of multi-console owner
**MS should out-beat sony instead of simply matching the identical games ...

[P_Bomb]

@marcellius1

FYI, I subscribed to psplus for the first time in December 2010 to get exclusive access to the DCUO beta. Loved it so much I bought it at launch on 01/11/2011. Downloaded a FREE Sam&Max game too just because.

The hack happened Months LATER. I bought Portal 2 to pass the time when it did and did the SP in Motorstorm Apocalypse as well. My trophy list corroborates everything. To say plus only exists because of the hack is fubar.

@k3rn3ll
And the 360 didn't even have a web browser until many, many years after the ps3. Or built in wifi, or GameRoom, or GWG, or cloud storage. I still can't even look at my friends' XboxOne trophies from my XBox360. Both companies have leapfrogged eachother in different ways.

[JasonKCK]

WOW! some people on this site really believe everything started with Sony.

[GarrusVakarian]

This is awesome...this right here is why competition is great. This is the first time that I've preferred the GWG offerings over the PS Plus offerings. I've been really wanting to play Max, and I'll play Halo co-op with a friend. I hope they can keep this quality up.

[Volkama]

@DL chat doesn't sound better on live because it has more servers. Chat sounds better because MS have very good codecs in place (from Skype), and most importantly because the mics on the XBox use the high bandwidth wireless controller connection (as opposed to the Bluetooth the PS4 mic uses).

Sadly they can only make voice chat more clear, they can't make the people talking more interesting :)

[blackout]

And if it wasn't for Microsoft there would be no PS Plus. Remember you had that trash ass HOME that was supposed to be the Xbox Live killer. Sony had two shots at going LIVE and got it right on the second try. Competition is bliss on the game front.

[Magicite]

only old or meh games, xbox fails again.

[Max-Zorin]

No wonder you only have one bubble.

[Gotcha5]

Former Microsoft Steve Ballmer gets the LA Clippers and we gets free games.... Good Tymes.

[TheSaint]

Actually it is bad, not the quality necessarily but the fact that they put Dark Souls on sale not that long ago.

That's a piss take, but that's MS.

[ITPython]

Glad to see MS starting to come around and catching up to PS+. If all goes well they could pull a Sony, and be successful in the next-next-gen of gaming consoles (XB2/PS5).

They will, however, be playing catch-up all this gen. Those with an XB1, you better get used to it, it's a long ride. But if they keep doing things right, like Sony did with the PS3, they may take the lead next-next-gen as long as Sony doesn't become complacent in their success (like they did coming out of the PS2 generation).

[Lawboy2]

Will be playing max don't know about halo spartan assault

[AngelicIceDiamond]

Same.

I'll try Max I dunno bout Spartan Assault.

The X1 starting out month isn't that appealing. But 360 looks great.

[Lawboy2]

It does but I traded my in to buy my next gen consoles...probably shouldn't have

[Dannyh]

Max is really good, halo Spartan is really bad

[DLConspiracy]

Now if Xbox would allow LARGER Gigs of external support on 360 then we would be set. I have run out of room on my external because on the 360 you only get 32gbs of extra support. If they opened that up a bit I would have more room.

[Mega24]

We have to keep in mind that this is still the Launch window, people expect AAA, there aren't actually that many to offer them, and by my theory X1 first AAA will be either Ryse or DR3, for sony will be Knack or KZ.

[TheBrit]

My son and I definitely will be playing both of those.

[incendy35]

Both Max and Spartan Assault are a lot of fun. If you don't have them, I highly recommend both.

[truefan1]

We'll everyone is so quick to say Xb1 owners should thank ps4 and sony for GwG. Prepare to do the same for XB1 and MSFT, because these are ACTUAL XB1 GAMES, not ports. Also these are good quality Xb1 and great value 360 game (especially in terms of being free). Not to mention ps+ members are now getting 2 free games for ps4, thanks to MSFT announcing Max COB and Halo Spartan Assault.

-Your Welcome.

[FITgamer]

Yeah i heard Spartan Assault was an amazing game. /s

[gamerfan0909]

It's not bad and it's not great. I played it on my PC and it was a simple enjoyable game that passes time. It's free so idk why someone would complain about it. At worst it's an average game with solid top down gameplay and a shaky story

[HugoDrax]

It's fun co-op, and the levels are actually different depending on if you're playing single player or co-op. I've completed the co-op levels with my brother on Xbox one, and I'm currently on the B missions for my single player play through.

[IRetrouk]

I think you will find sony released their statment about ps4 getting two free + games before anyone knew what games you were getting with gfg on xbox 1 or even how many you were getting, soooo yeah. Good choices though im sure xbox 1 fans will be happy with the first offerings.

[IRetrouk]

I was wrong about them not announcing how many games you would get, my bad.

[DonDon]

Sony announced that PS4 will get 2 games w/ PS+ DAYS before this article was made. So no, Sony fans have nothing to thank MS for. Nada.

[LoveOfTheGame]

Not agreeing with the guy above you, but they announced the two XBO games like a week ago so.

And there is plenty Sony fans should be thankful for from MS, and vice versa.

[Ausbo]

Um no. These games were announced a couple weeks ago. When they announced the kinectless sku.

even the 360 ones were announced

[Dread]

Sony FREE (AKA rental)

or really FREE (AKA the way the rest of the world defines and understands something to be free)

[Flutterby]

@dread

Games with gold work the same way as the psn ones now or didn't you know that , you look silly now huh.

[LexHazard79]

I say you owe Thanks for PSN. XBL for what it is has always been a great service from the get go. I cant say the same for PS. Sony envied XBL for awhile there. Now PS+ is a great service, thanks to Sony trying to out do MS XBL.

Also new generation Id say the GFG on XB1 is off to a great start. Maybe next month XB1 owners get lucky and get 1st Season of Killer Instincts and Zoo Tycoon for free.

[Malphite]

Congratulations. You seem to have understood how competition works. And even though both Playstation and Xbox gamers benefit from the competition between Sony and MS, people like you try to make another topic in your pathetic console war out of it.

I also don't understand why you said "you're welcome" at the end of your comment. Even though it might have been Sony's intention to one up Microsoft's GwG offerings I'm pretty sure you have nothing to do with it.

[InTheLab]

But one still would not exist without the other so adding an additional game makes no difference.

If you want to get technical, PSN+ gives away at least Five games a month.

This site is ridiculous. Let's all thank mS for copying psn+ who copies Xbox live that copies psn+.

That is what you're saying.

[FanboyKilla]

@truefan BOOM!! And o yeah, ms GIVES you games, sony lets u play games if you are sub. If you leave xbox live, you take YOUR games. Sony will follow.....

[memots]

truefan1 " because these are ACTUAL XB1 GAMES, not ports. "

Halo Spartan Assault is a tablet port .
Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is also a port from PC and 360

I got Sf4 arcade on ps+ free like over half a year ago.
Dark soul is nice but still prefer Demon soul ( free with ps+ as well )
Charlie Murder is only avail on 360, i tough indie didn't count ?

[DigitalRaptor]

They ARE ports and they are worse quality than the PS+ offerings too.

Congratulations.

[TheSaint]

My welcome?

[gamerfan0909]

Too bad I don't have my 360 anymore or else I'd play Dark Souls. But I will definitely try out Max and Halo Spartan assault on my buddies XB1.

[No_Limit]

Cool stuff incoming....I also like that the Free Super SFIV also grant you a discount of 50% to upgrade to Ultra SFIV as well. Also not noted here is that both Forza 5 and Ryse will be on sale over Live next week.

[Godz Kastro]

I love competition, MS made Sony and vice versa.

[pabadamus1]

Great selection. I am getting closer than ever to buying an X1. If MSFT continues to offer compelling software with their gold service that may be the push I need to get me over the hump.

[Swiggins]

See Microsoft THESE are the kinds of free games I can get behind, quality titles all of em, even Spartan Assault.

Now keep it up and MAYBE you'll match Playstation Plus in a year or so.

[Furesis]

looking good

[diesoft]

Does anybody know if we can associate the XB1 games with our account on xbox.com so we can download them later if we don't have an XB1 right now? That's a really good incentive to get an XB1 if we know we have a ton of games waiting for us.

[Dread]

I dont think so. the Xbox one is not compatible with xbox 360 games, including arcades.

[No_Limit]

Actually, after the last update, you can buy XB1 games over live now without having the need to do it on the console itself.

You can buy the games digitally over at xbox.com for both Xbox One and 360. The default method for mine is with my digital points but you can also buy it with a credit card as well. When you get home later and log in or when you buy a XB1 in the future, and register your console with your xbox account, anything that you had purchase will sync and download to your system.

[KnottaTroll]

Hopefully you can, but Idk. It works for playstation plus subscribers that way. I did that with the early ps4 games till I was able to actually buy my ps4 and download all of them.

[jon200547]

wait 5 games really wow thats better than getting just 2

[bleedsoe9mm]

its close but i think its better than sony's june offering
xb1 - max curse of brotherhood
- Halo :spartan assault
360 -dark souls
-charlie murder
-street fighter IV :arcade edition
ps4 - Pixeljunk Shooter Ultimate
- trine 2
ps3- nba 2k14
-sly cooper

[Kane22]

well SSF4 was already given to PlayStation for free so....

[XxExacutionerxX]

But you don't keep it forever like GWG

(Believe in the cloud)

[Flutterby]

You don't get to keep xbone games either only 360 till they drop the console.

[KingTrash]

Giving Max away is a real gift. It's a great game!

[jon200547]

wait thats not 5 thats wrong they said 5 for both xbox one and 360 thats not what i see i see 2 games for xbox one and 3 for 360 the only way i would even consider that 5 games if they were both getting all 5 but they are not so its not 5 games wrong

[Volkama]

Yes, I also struggle to add 2 and 3 together.

Thanks for the headache, Microso.... Micro... Micro-stupids. Ha!

[Ripsta7th]

This is great. I could renew my gold subscription on my 360 and start stacking free games. Old but never bought 360 games as much as ps3 games

[ajax17]

Cool of them to give Dark Souls. More people need to be exposed to those games!

[etownone]

Wow.

First time I'm actually impressed with Games for Gold.

Must be because they want to look good for E3.

Anyways.... Thanks MS

[mochachino]

Good job MS.

Xbox fanboys can't hate Sony that much, they wouldn't have free games without them.

[DigitalRaptor]

They shouldn't hate Sony.

Microsoft got into the industry because of Sony in the first place: http://www.develop-online.n...

[kingPoS]

Trust me! When your game library grow so vast, that you can scroll through it like a jukebox, you'll be thanking Sony... and MS.

Gateway MT6706 2008

[shmeedy24685]

I'll download them all. I honestly think Microsoft are in better shape now Phil Spencer is the head of Xbox. I grew up playing Nintendo and Sony consoles but I got an Xbox 360 a few years ago and I'm glad I did. I love my PS3/PS4/Vita and Xbox 360/Xbox One and my PC.

[Goro]

PlayStation Plus is going downhill and GWG is uprising.

[90Supra]

http://replygif.net/i/1370....

[realgame]

Care to explain?

[DVAcme]

PS+ has a few HUNDRED games head start there, buddy. It's a great lineup this month to be sure, but they still have a lot of catching up to do.

[Goro]

I'm not saying GWG is better, i'm saying the gap is narrowing. There's no doubt after June's PS Plus update of us losing annual games and all games will not be available after 1 month that the service is going downhill.
& This months GWG updates adds 3 more games and much better ones than it usually does so clearly it's uprising. Point made.

[LAWSON72]

I am excited to see what games Live will offer in the future. The first month (Xbone) seems okay and since I don't have either I can't complain

[PrinceOfAllSaiyans]

Can't wait to try Max Curser of Brotherhood on my XB1 !

[Tedakin]

Wow... Max is someting I actually really want. I already beat Halo. Deadlight a month ago was good too. Glad this is looking way better, as opposed to the utter joke it had been.

[Demoa]

Never played dark souls but will finally get to see what the hype behind it is about.

[ThanatosDMC]

Prepare to die. Btw, shields are for pansies.

[Silly gameAr]

Super awesome hype time!

[urwifeminder]

Nice count me in MS don't own either of these , will halo be unlocked on surface if you get the xb1 version? I hope so don't see why not as it is tied to ur account.

[DVAcme]

I'm a Sony customer and am more than happy with PS Plus' Instant Game Collection, but I must say that that's an excellent list of free games. Good to see MS finally stepping up, competition is good for all of us gamers. Congrats.

[DVAcme]

Wow, I play nice by complimenting MS while admitting I'm a Sony customer and I get a dislike, go fig. Might as well not bother and just shit all over MS like all the fanboys in this place. *sigh*

[Snowblind15]

I highly recommend trying Dark Souls. It is a great game that deserves a larger fan base.

[Armadilo21]

I have an honest Question, why do Xbox gamers say that Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is not an indie game ? they refer that game as AAA

[knighthero95]

Because it's first party, MS owns the IP

[Locknuts]

Great games. If anyone can afford to give them away, it's Microsoft.

[Father__Merrin]

Xbox old hat games PlayStation new hat games mainly!!!

[Clown_Syndr0me]

See people we should stop taking sides and urge both sides to keep up the good work, without competition neither company would need to push great deals like this.
Ofcourse its just a business strategy, to them gaming is a business. Happy gamers = more money. Nothing to moan about!

[InTheZoneAC]

SNES did fine without competition
NES did fine without competition
GB, GBC, GBA did fine without competition
PS2 did fine without competition

When you simply have greedy companies that don't even give a damn about their customers you have what M$ does at the end of every console generation and you have what they did with Live this entire time up until they started handing out games...

[Clown_Syndr0me]

Times were far simpler back then.
Some of the best features we have now are because of competition. Trophys, party's on Playstation, Games with Gold, Playstation Plus..
all of those were spurred on my competition. If you're happy with your NES, go play that.
You just sound like a typical Sony fanboy.

As for your other comment below, MS aren't robbing. Xbox Live gold is a service and should be paid for same as any other service. Before PSN went paid for it was terrible, they need the funding to support it properly. If you want to moan about costs why don't you go moan at Virgin or Sky about how their TV packages should be free?

[king_ps4]

GwG sucks

[InTheZoneAC]

so it took playstation to give away games for M$ to finally join the club?

This whole time M$ was simply robbing every Gold customer until about now...

[WickedLester]

Looking forward to playing Max The Curse of Brotherhood. The game looks like a ton of fun!