Xbox Game Pass Kicks Off March 2022 With A Surprising Headliner

It's the first day of a new month and that means Microsoft has revealed a new batch of games headed to Xbox Game Pass. Over the first two weeks of March 2022, Xbox Game Pass will see the addition of seven new titles – a fairly small number compared to some of the larger updates we've seen previously. Of course, quality is more important than quantity and depending on who you ask, March could well be a big month for Xbox Game Pass despite the relatively small number of new additions.

Surprisingly, leading the charge for the first half of March is "Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy." This is a relatively recent release from a major publisher, as Square Enix launched the game in October 2021, so it's a bit surprising to see it coming to Game Pass this month. Still, as a single-player, story-driven game, it's possible that Square Enix has determined "Guardians of the Galaxy" has already sold most of the copies it will sell and that putting it on Xbox Game Pass is a good way to make a bit of extra cash. In any case, we certainly aren't complaining.

As outlined on Xbox Wire, the new additions actually kick off today with "Far: Changing Tides" on cloud, console, and PC, which is joined by a cloud version of "Microsoft Flight Simulator." On Thursday, March 3, "Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII" (console and PC) will join the service. Once "Lightning Returns" has gone live, the entire "Final Fantasy XIII" trilogy will be available through Xbox Game Pass. So, if you didn't get the chance to play these games when they first launched, you'll be able to play through the whole trilogy from start to finish through Xbox Game Pass.

March 10 is the big day, because that's when all the other games lined up for the first half of March will be added to Xbox Game Pass. In addition to "Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy" (cloud, console, and PC), we'll also see "Kentucky Route Zero" (cloud, console, and PC), "Lawn Mowing Simulator" (Xbox One), and "Young Souls" (cloud, console, and PC).

It should be noted that "Far: Changing Tides" and "Young Souls" are both day-one additions to Xbox Game Pass, meaning they're joining the service the same day they release. In addition, "Lawn Mowing Simulator" is already available on other platforms such as PC and Xbox Series X|S through Xbox Game Pass, so on March 10, we'll just see the Xbox One version go live to round out all of the available platforms.

Along with the usual announcement of upcoming games, Microsoft also revealed some new features for the Xbox Game Pass PC app. With this new update, users can choose which folders their games install to and even access the files for those games in some cases. The Xbox Game Pass PC app is also getting the ability to repair and move games, which is great to see. Finally, more games are getting mod support, so slowly but surely, we're seeing Microsoft build out the feature set for Game Pass on PC – something its players have wanted for a while now.

As always, there are some games leaving Xbox Game Pass this month, as well. On Tuesday, March 15 – two weeks from today – look for "Nier: Automata," "Phogs!," "Torchlight III," and "The Surge 2" to all leave the platform. All of those games are currently available through the cloud, console, and PC versions of Game Pass, and they'll be disappearing from each one, so finish up quickly if you're currently playing any of those titles.