The opening batch of Xbox Game Pass additions for August 2026 is set, running from August 4 through August 18 and touching every subscription tier. The headline draw is early access to the Gears of War: E-Day open beta, which Ultimate and PC Game Pass members can play at no extra cost, alongside day-one arrivals and a stack of titles moving down to Game Pass Premium.
Quick answer: Twelve games arrive between August 4 and 18. Two are already live (Heretic + Hexen and Beast of Reincarnation), the Gears of War: E-Day early access beta opens August 6 for Ultimate and PC Game Pass, and four games leave the service on August 15.
Gears of War: E-Day open beta without a pre-order
Access to the Gears of War: E-Day beta no longer requires a pre-order. A valid Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass subscription is enough to get in during the early access window. That window opens August 6 and runs through August 10, giving members a first look at the new Horde Siege PvE mode, a larger-scale take on the series’ co-op wave survival built for bigger maps and more players. You can download the beta ahead of time and jump in as soon as the servers come online. Details on the mode are posted on the official Gears of War multiplayer page.
If you don’t pre-order and don’t subscribe to Ultimate or PC Game Pass, you can still play. A second, fully open beta window runs from August 13 to August 17 and is available to everyone.
Every game coming to Xbox Game Pass in early August 2026
The table below lists each title, its arrival date, and the tiers it appears on. Many entries were already in the Ultimate and PC libraries and are now being extended to Game Pass Premium, which is why Premium features so heavily this month.
| Game | Date | Tiers |
|---|---|---|
| Heretic + Hexen | August 4 (out now) | Ultimate, Premium, PC |
| Beast of Reincarnation | August 4 (out now) | Ultimate, PC |
| Monsters are Coming! | August 6 | Ultimate, Premium, PC |
| PowerWash Simulator 2 | August 6 | Ultimate, Premium, PC |
| Bounty Star | August 11 | Ultimate, Premium, PC |
| Date Everything! | August 11 | Ultimate, Premium, PC |
| Grounded 2 (Game Preview) | August 11 | Ultimate, Premium, PC |
| Ball x Pit | August 12 | Ultimate, Premium, PC |
| Cricket 26 | August 13 | Ultimate, Premium, PC |
| Mio: Memories in Orbit | August 13 | Ultimate, Premium, PC |
| Sandustry (Game Preview) | August 13 | Ultimate, PC |
| Egging On | August 18 | Ultimate, Premium, PC |
Two of these are day-one launches. Beast of Reincarnation is Game Freak’s new action RPG set in a post-apocalyptic take on futuristic Japan, following a young woman and her dog as they fight golems and corrupted creatures. Sandustry is a factory-building game about mining fully destructible worlds, arriving through Game Preview. Date Everything! is the most notable addition to the standard library, a voice-acted comedic dating sim with 100 datable characters drawn from the furniture and objects around your house.
Games leaving Xbox Game Pass on August 15
Four titles rotate out of the library on August 15, so plan any remaining playtime before then. Subscribers can buy these games at a discount to keep playing after they leave.
- Menace (Game Preview)
- Atlas Fallen
- Aliens: Fireteam Elite
- Firewatch
EA Play trial and in-game extras
Ultimate and PC Game Pass members with EA Play get a 10-hour early access trial for EA Sports Madden NFL 27 starting August 6, playable on console, PC, and cloud, along with an EA Play Welcome Pack and a discount on Madden Points. Separately, a free Game Pass Pack 7 bundle for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Call of Duty: Warzone is available now across all tiers, including operator skins, weapon blueprints, and a finishing move.
Which tier you need
The Gears of War: E-Day early access beta and the day-one games require Ultimate or PC Game Pass. Premium subscribers get most of the month’s additions but not the day-one launches. Essential does not receive these wave 1 titles. Current monthly pricing is listed below.
| Plan | Price | Library size |
|---|---|---|
| Essential | $9.99/mo | 50+ games |
| PC Game Pass | $13.99/mo | 300+ PC games |
| Premium | $14.99/mo | 200+ games |
| Ultimate | $22.99/mo | 500+ games |
A second wave of August additions is expected later in the month. The full breakdown of wave 1 is posted on the Xbox news site, and titles like Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy are already confirmed to follow in late August.
