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GTA 5 and four other games leaving Xbox Game Pass this month

By Matthew Liebl

Grand Theft Auto Video Game Rakes In 800 Million Dollars Within One Day Of Sales
Grand Theft Auto Video Game Rakes In 800 Million Dollars Within One Day Of Sales / Mario Tama/GettyImages
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January will see seven new games come to Xbox Game Pass (with more likely on the way later this month). But as we say hello to gems like Resident Evil 2 and Assassin's Creed Valhalla, we also bid farewell to some games that have been on the service for quite some time now.

The first game to leave Xbox Game Pass this month is arguably the biggest — Grand Theft Auto 5. Currently available to play via Clodu or Console, GTA 5 is Rockstar's critically acclaimed open-world blockbuster. It will be leaving the service on January 5th.

GTA 5 was first released over a decade ago on October 1, 2013, but remains one of the most popular and played games to date thanks, in large part, to GTA Online. The game made its Xbox Game Pass debut in 2020 and has been added and removed from the library on multiple occasions over the past couple of years.

Given the game's popularity, there's a chance it could return to Xbox Game Pass in the future — perhaps closer to when GTA 6 releases. Rockstar revealed Grand Theft Auto 6 last month, announcing a 2025 release window for the highly anticipated game. It feels a bit odd to remove GTA 5 when the hype is likely at a high following the reveal of GTA 6, but there's a chance it could return later this year or maybe even next year as a marketing tool to get people hyped for the release of the next installment in the franchise.

For now though, January 5th will mark the last time you can play it on Xbox Series X|S or Xbox One for free through Game Pass.

While GTA 5 is arguably the biggest game getting removed from from Xbox Game Pass, four other games are set to leave the service on January 15:

  • Garden Story (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • MotoGP 22 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Persona 4 Golden (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Persona 3 Portable (Cloud, Console, and PC)

The Persona games are likely niche titles but I highly recommend playing them — at least giving them a try — before they are removed to see if you like them. If you do end up enjoying them, you can always purchase them for up to 20 percent off.

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