Xbox Games with Gold July 2021 — all the free games to play

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Planet Alpha, Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break, Conker: Live & Reloaded, and 34 retro arcade games all for free

Conker: Live & Reloaded free with Xbox Games with Gold July 2021
(Image credit: Microsoft)

Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will get three new games to try out for free in July, plus a bevy of retro arcade titles. 

Planet Alpha, Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break, Conker: Live & Reloaded will be offered to subscribers, along with the Midway Arcade Origins, which presents a collection of 34 retro arcade games to try out on the Xbox One, Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S. 

Priced between $29 and $9, these games aren’t exactly the big hitters from our list of best Xbox Series X games. But they all serve as useful distractions while we wait for the slew of Xbox games revealed at E3 2021 to release, such as the likes of Psychonauts 2, which will be a day one release for Xbox Game Pass on August 25. 

For people in the mood to try a game that sees them fill the boots (paws) of a foul-mouthed cartoon squirrel, then Conker: Live & Reloaded could be well worth a look. It’s based on a remastered version of Rare’s Conker's Bad Fur Day, which was released on the Nintendo 64 way back in 2001. 

Back then some had been expecting the game to follow in the family-friendly vin of Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo-Kazooie, but Rare decided to treat a different path and aim Conker at a mature audience, which worked and saw the game get critically-acclaimed. Whether the remastered version can stand up to today’s standards, we’ll leave for you to decide. 

If you’ve not got access to Xbox Live Gold, you can sign up to it on the Xbox website for $9.99 a month. For that price you get access to online multiplayer for Xbox as well as free monthly games and big discounts on games. 

However, we’d advise you to make the jump to Xbox Game Pass, specifically Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. For $14.99 a month you get access to a huge range of Xbox games, new and old, as well as all the benefits of Xbox Live Gold, Xbox Cloud Gaming on Android, iOS, and PC, and Game Pass for PC. 

Furthermore, a whole suite of future games like Starfield and Redfall will launch day one on Game Pass, meaning you won’t have to shell out $50 to $70 for them. For those lucky enough to have found an Xbox Series X restock, we’d argue Xbox Game Pass is essential. 

Roland Moore-Colyer
Roland Moore-Colyer

Roland Moore-Colyer a Managing Editor at Tom’s Guide with a focus on news, features and opinion articles. He often writes about gaming, phones, laptops and other bits of hardware; he’s also got an interest in cars. When not at his desk Roland can be found wandering around London, often with a look of curiosity on his face.