Xbox Game Pass May Be Losing One of Its Biggest Games Soon

Xbox Game Pass may soon lose one of its most prominent titles. Xbox Game Pass is one of the most innovative services in gaming. Given gaming is one of the biggest forms of entertainment, but also one of the most expensive hobbies to partake in, Xbox found a way to make things more affordable and accessible. Thanks to Xbox Game Pass, for just under $20 a month, Xbox users can play all kinds of major games at no extra cost. Huge hits like Starfield, Batman: Arkham Knight, and other games have all come to the service and allow fans the opportunity to experience some of the best games out there. On top of that, some of these games are even playable through the cloud, so you don't need to own a console to play them. PC even has its own version of Game Pass to further expand its userbase.

With that said, Grand Theft Auto V has been one of the most valuable games on the service, but it may soon leave the service. Users are reporting that they've been notified that Grand Theft Auto V will be removed from Xbox Game Pass later this month. Although there hasn't been a formal announcement, this would make sense. The game has come to the service in the past and doesn't stick around for more than a few months before being abruptly removed. It's likely Rockstar and Take-Two utilize the accessibility of the service to welcome new players to the online mode, but then remove it from the service in hopes of converting players into concrete sales. Given GTA Online has been running for a decade now with steady streams of quality updates and that will likely continue up until the release of GTA 6 in 2025, it makes sense why the companies behind the game would want to maximize actual sales.

Is GTA V leaving at the end of the year?
by u/C0d24 in XboxGamePass

At the very least, GTA 5 goes on sale quite frequently and is fairly cheap in its own right. Whether or not Rockstar Games will bring GTA 5 back to Xbox Game Pass in the future remains to be seen, but it's not unlikely. The game has already made the rounds on the service multiple times now, so the odds of it coming back seem favorable. It would also make for a good way to market Grand Theft Auto VI as it approaches release, allowing fans to revisit the previous game in preparation for the new one despite the stories seemingly being totally unconnected. 

GTA 6 Release Date

Grand Theft Auto VI has been confirmed to release in 2025, but we don't know anything specific beyond that. Take-Two Interactive expects a massive bump in revenue by the start of spring 2025, so it's possible the game will release around then, but nothing has been confirmed. Even if that's the way it's being planned now, there is always room for the game to get delayed internally and see it released in the fall of that year.