The “Games with Gold” program Xbox is instituting, which offers Xbox Live Gold subscribers two free games per month, will officially kick off July 1. According to Larry Hryb’s blog, aka Major Nelson, the inaugural title offered since the program was announced at E3 will be Xbox Live Arcade’s Defense Grid: The Awakening.
As you may have guessed, Defense Grid is a Tower Defense Strategy title, developed by Hidden Path Entertainment. Normally priced at 800 Microsoft Points ($10,) the game will be free for Gold users from July 1-15. Then, beginning July 16, another game will be offered for free; no details yet on the second title up for download later this month as of yet.
For those wondering what happened to Halo 3 and Assassin‘s Creed II, the original titles thought to spearhead the Games with Gold program, Major Nelson took to Twitter to shed some light on their absence. He affirms that while the titles will be offered as part of the program at some point, Microsoft has yet to announce exactly when they’ll become available. Stay tuned, as we’ll have more information should Microsoft make any formal announcement.
Do you plan on picking up Defense Grid for free? Are you happy Microsoft is including Arcade titles as part of the Games with Gold program, or would you prefer to download console titles that normally appear for Games on Demand? Let us know in the usual place, and don’t forget to like IGXPro on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or give us the ‘ol +1 on Google+. And if you can’t get enough of my shenanigans, (who could blame you?) you can check me out @GamingsNirvana, or add +VinnyParisi to your circles.
