The New Year is about to land and that means more games inbound for Xbox Gold subscribers too. Will it bring some pleasant surprises or kick off 2023 with another disappointing month? Full details can be found here but the games in question are:

• Iris Fall (Jan 1-31)
• Autonauts (Jan 16-Feb 15)

Both titles are new to me so there’s not much to comment on unfortunately but when I look over the fence to see that PlayStation Plus are giving away Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Fallout 76 it doesn’t compare well. While together they are part of Game Pass Ultimate, it does highlight a large value difference between the Gold subscription and the newer services.

It’s obvious the intent is to convince players to embrace Game Pass and retire the Gold service but the longer it remains, the more these comparisons just add a black mark, albeit a diminishing one, to their other services. Time to let it go?