Xbox Game Pass Users Losing Access to Popular Survival Game

Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers on Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and PC are about to lose access to one of the most popular survivable games on the subscription service. Why? Well, because the deal to keep in Game Pass is about to expire. More specifically, on November 15 -- which is 13 days away from the moment of publishing -- Subnautica will no longer be available via the subscription service. 

Developed by Unknown Worlds Entertainment, Subnautica is an open-world survival action-adventure with horror elements that takes place underwater. Released in 2018 after a stint in Steam Early Access, the game has come to PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch since its initial PC-only release in 2018, selling more than five million copies in the process. A sequel, Subnautica: Below Zero, followed in 2021. 

In addition to selling well, the game also performed well with critics, with the PC version garnering an 87 on Metacritic. Meanwhile, over on Steam the game boasts an "Overwhelmingly Positive" User Review Rating, with 96 percent of 187,000 user reviews reviewing the game positively. 

"Subnautica is an underwater adventure game set on an alien ocean planet. A massive, open world full of wonder and peril awaits you! You have crash-landed on an alien ocean world, and the only way to go is down. Subnautica's oceans range from sun-drenched shallow coral reefs to treacherous deep-sea trenches, lava fields, and bio-luminescent underwater rivers. Manage your oxygen supply as you explore kelp forests, plateaus, reefs, and winding cave systems. The water teems with life: Some of it helpful, much of it harmful."

For the next 13 days, before Subnautica leaves Xbox Game Pass, the game is available to purchase outright to all subscribers with a 20 percent discount. Normally, the game costs $30 so this would represent a savings of $6. 

Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate are available via Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and PC for $10 and $15, respectively. For an extra $5 a month, the latter comes with Xbox Live Gold, EA Play, and other benefits.