Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers have six games coming way in the next few days, with Mortal Kombat 1 being the biggest title on the list. There are a lot of benefits that come with an Xbox Game Pass subscription, and Microsoft is ending 2025 with a bang.
November brought a lot of fun games to the top tier of Xbox’s gaming subscription service, with Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault, The Crew: Motorfest, Kill It With Fire! 2, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, and Monsters Are Coming! Rock & Road all arriving in the latter half of the month. The hits for December have already started rolling in, as Xbox Game Pass Ultimate added Marvel: Cosmic Invasion on December 1 and followed it up with Lost Records: Bloom & Rage on December 2.
How to Perform Every Animality in Mortal Kombat 1 (Video Guide)
Learning how to perform all of the Mortal Kombat 1 Animalities will likely be important for those hoping to celebrate their victories in style.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Games Coming Soon
- Routine – December 4 (Cloud, Console, Handheld, and PC)
- A Game About Digging a Hole – December 9 (Cloud, Handheld, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
- Death Howl – December 9 (Handheld & PC)
- Dome Keeper – December 9 (Cloud, Console, Handheld, and PC)
- Mortal Kombat 1 – December 10 (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
- Bratz: Rhythm and Style – December 11 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Heading further towards the end of the year, the Ultimate tier of Xbox Game Pass has six more titles lined up for release through December 11, and they include the best-selling fighting game of this generation. Mortal Kombat 1 hits Game Pass Ultimate on December 10, bringing Nether Realm Studios’ 2023 hit to a new audience. Featuring a robust Story Mode as well as sporting a competitive online multiplayer scene, the reboot of the storied Mortal Kombat fighting game franchise has proven to be very successful, with an 87 percent critic recommendation rate on OpenCritic, and creator Ed Boon revealed earlier this year that it had sold more than 6.2 million copies, placing it well ahead of Street Fighter 6 for this current console generation’s biggest fighting game hit. That big fan base means any Game Pass Ultimate subscribers who have missed out on Mortal Kombat 1 so far will soon have a chance to get in on the party.
Also coming this month, on December 9, is indie darling A Game About Digging a Hole. A backyard hole-digging simulation that tasks players with tunneling into the earth to collect expensive ores, the game has a simplistic nature that adds just a touch of mystery and horror as players reach further downward, and its rise in popularity has been aided by multiple popular streamers. Released in February by developer DoubleBee, A Game About Digging a Hole passed impressive milestones on Steam, where it holds an “Overwhelmingly Positive” 96 percent recommendation rate and has already sold more than a million copies.
Other additions coming to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate in the coming days include Routine on December 4, Death Howl and Dome Keeper on December 9, and Bratz: Rhythm and Style on December 11. Created by Lunar Software, Routine is a promising sci-fi horror game and a day-one pick-up for Game Pass Ultimate, letting subscribers dive into its creepy lunar base setting at launch. Initially available only on PC and handheld, Death Howl is the latest game published by 11 Bit Studios, creator of The Alters and the Frostpunk franchise, and its RPG and card game elements make up the second day-one game on the list. Bippinbits’ 2022 tower defense game Dome Keeper is also coming to Ultimate subscribers, as is Recotechnology S.L.’ Bratz: Rhythm and Style, which features the girls from the popular doll line traveling to big cities across the globe and lets players design customizable outfits for them.
While a new crop of games make their Game Pass debuts, others are preparing for their exit, including another hit Mortal Kombat title. Subscribers have only until December 15 to collect souls in Mortal Kombat 11, which is set to leave Game Pass the same day as adventure survival game Still Wakes the Deep and roguelike deck-builder Wildfrost. Two more games say goodbye to the subscription service on December 31, as players will want to wrap up horror game Carrion and tactical multiplayer FPS Hell Let Loose before then.
