I could've swore Microsoft stated that Game Pass games that leave the service in the middle of you beating them could still be played after the removal date, as long as the game remains installed and you remain a subscriber.

But I just tried to launch GTAV for the first time since it left GP and it gives me the "do you own this" drm screen.

It would be weird for them to backtrack, especially since they label games as "leaving soon" so why the heck would someone download GTAV the day before leaving and try to beat it in under 24 hours.

@lilnatureboyx: I don't remember ever hearing that (not saying you're wrong, I just don't recall), but the same thing happened to me with that Shantae's Pirate Curse game, and I downloaded it when it was available in 2018, tried to go back when it was off to finish it in 2019, and got the same message.

Part of me wonders how on Earth they would even police this for something like Game Pass where things come and go? Like, how do they determine when you've "finished" a game? And I imagine that combined with the fact that there must be some sort of transaction happening between MS and pubs/devs, what you're proposing is just basically having every Game Pass game, even ones with popular MP like GTA 5 and RDR 2, be free even if pub/dev maybe only agreed to a certain period of time/are getting paid for a certain period of time? What you originally describe to me sounds more like what they do with Games with Gold, where as long as you "purchase" it when it is free, and as long as you have Gold, you can download it anytime.

I don't know it just feels like in the past I had been able to play removed games, in fact on some website that lists all the games ever removed from GP month to month had Tekken Tag 2 listed as leaving mid 2018 and I just started playing it two months ago and just tried it now and worked

edit... And GTAV is literally advertised as the banner ad of the Xbox Store game pass tab as " now available!"