UPDATE: My bad. The first game was Fable III. This is what we call a "soft launch" of a news article.
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Ahead of Xbox One’s launch later, Microsoft is rolling out some new Xbox Live features, including Free With Gold, which distributes older games at the low price of nothing to XBL Gold users. The first release is Defense Grid: The Awakening, a tower defense game.
Brad Shoemaker is excited about this, I guess?
Free With Gold is a direct response to a similar service that's proven extremely popular on PlayStation Plus.
Users are understandably upset about this unexciting launch, given Microsoft teased Halo 3 and Assassin's Creed II at E3. Yeah, Microsoft didn’t promise those games would be the first games as part of Free With Gold, but it’s also not surprising people would make that safe assumption.
“Halo 3 and Assassin’s Creed II were mentioned as part of the program - no date was given for their release,” said Xbox Live director of programming Larry Hryb on Twitter. “I don't know what titles will be released when, but I'll let you know what they are when I find out.”
If Defense Grid is all Microsoft could offer at launch, it should have, at least, been prepared to offer a better tease of what's coming in the next few months.