Xbox One Makes New Horror Game Free for Halloween

Microsoft has made a new Xbox One horror game free for Halloween, but there’s a catch. The catch being the freebie is only available to Xbox Live Gold subscribers via Games With Gold. This means if you’re not an Xbox Gold subscriber, the game is still its normal price, but many of you are Gold subscribers because it’s required to play online and multiplayer games.

As for the new free game, Maid of Sker, it comes way of Wales Interactive, and it just released back in July, making it a fairly new release and one of the most notable horror games of 2020. Pitched as a first-person survival horror game, Maid of Skier currently boasts a “Very Positive” Steam User Reviews rating, with 82 percent of users reviewing the game positively. Meanwhile, over on Metacritic, the game hasn’t fared quite as well, sitting in the 60s with a score dependent on the platform.

Below, you can read more about the horror game, as well as check out its terrifying reveal trailer:

“Brave the nightmares of the Quiet Ones. Do not panic… don’t even breathe! Maid of Sker is a first-person survival horror, set in a remote hotel with a gory and macabre history from British folklore,” reads an official pitch of the game. “Armed with only a defensive sound device, you’ll utilize stealth tactics to avoid death amongst a cult of sound-based AI enemies. Set in 1898 and inspired by the haunting Welsh tale of Elisabeth Williams, this is a story of a family empire driven by torture, slavery, piracy, and a supernatural mystery that suffocates the grounds of the hotel.”

In addition to Maid of Sker, Costume Quest is also now free. Costume Quest is a Halloween-themed game from Double Fine Productions, but unlike Maid of Sker, it’s not designed to be scary. Further, it’s worth noting this is the Xbox 360 version of the game, but it’s playable on Xbox One via backward compatibility.

While Costume Quest is only free until October 31, Maid of Sker will actually be free until November 15. Once downloaded, both of the games are yours to keep forever, as long as you maintain an active subscription to Xbox Live Gold. If your subscription lapses, you will lose access to both games until you subscribe back up.