July 17, 2026

Two day-one games land on Game Pass today, Tony Hawk 1+2 is quietly pulled from July's lineup, and Foretales becomes Epic's next free game

FixForce (Xbox Tavern 7.8, co-op extraction platformer for up to six) and Fogpiercer (two 7/10 reviews, a PC-only train deckbuilder) hit Game Pass day one on Friday, July 17. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2, previously set for July 21, has been pulled over licensing with no new date. Epic officially reveals Foretales as its July 23 free game, ending the two-freebies-per-week streak. Plus weekend deadlines and the forward calendar. Every end date checked.

Game Pass: two day-one games land today

The Xbox Game Pass July wave finishes on Friday, July 17 with two day-one releases, one for every tier and one for PC only.

FixForce is the broader of the two. It is a chaotic co-op extraction platformer for up to six players from Surgent Studios, the team behind Tales of Kenzara: Zau (founded by Assassin's Creed Origins voice actor Abubakar Salim). You play robots on a post-apocalyptic worksite, using a drill-wrench to build towers and paths out of scrap, scavenging replacement parts, and fixing broken machines before the clock runs out. It leaves Early Access today and launches at $7.99, day one on Game Pass for Ultimate, Premium, and PC across Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Pure Xbox, July 17; Xbox Wire, July 7). The review picture is thin but early: Xbox Tavern scored it 7.8 out of 10, calling it a blast with a full squad but warning the difficulty is high, the RNG can feel unfair, and it leans hard toward six-player groups. Steam sits at "Positive" but off only about 27 Early Access reviews, so there is no real consensus yet. With a Game Pass sub the $7.99 price is moot; the honest caveat is bring friends and expect a learning curve.

Fogpiercer is the second drop, and it is PC only. A roguelite train-battling deckbuilder from Mad Cookies Studio, published by Hooded Horse (a name strategy players trust), it has you assembling a train, modding a deck, and fighting through a bandit-infested winter wasteland with grid-based tactical combat. It releases today, July 17, on PC via Steam, GOG, and the Microsoft Store, day one on PC Game Pass for Ultimate and PC tiers (Games Press, June 18; Pure Xbox, July 17). Two early reviews landed at 7 out of 10, from The Wand Report and Checkpoint Gaming, and a demo has been on Steam for anyone who wants to try before the Game Pass install. Console players are out of luck for now.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 pulled from July's Game Pass lineup

If you were waiting on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 to hit Game Pass on July 21, the plan has changed. Xbox quietly added an editor's note to its Wave 1 lineup post on July 13 reading, "We've removed Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 from the list of titles coming soon to Game Pass," and Activision PR has since confirmed the cause (Pure Xbox, July 15; IGN, July 15).

The statement, attributed to Activision PR: "We're continuing to work through the necessary licensor approvals for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2. We'll share an update as soon as we have one. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 is still available on Game Pass. Thanks for your patience." Microsoft separately confirmed to reporter Jez Corden that the holdup is a licensing issue and that the game is expected back eventually, with no date given (Insider Gaming, July 16). The Tony Hawk series has a long history of music-licensing tangles, which is the likely culprit.

What this means for the calendar: July 21 is now a single day-one Game Pass drop, The Planet Crafter (an open-world sci-fi terraforming sandbox, Ultimate and PC), instead of the skateboarding two-pack readers were expecting. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 remains on the service in the meantime.

Epic: Foretales is the next free game, and the current lineup is still claimable

Epic has officially revealed its next giveaway: Foretales, a narrative-driven card game that blends deckbuilding with choose-your-own-adventure exploration, will be free to claim from Thursday, July 23 at 8am PT through July 30 (GameRant, July 16; Notebookcheck, July 17). It normally runs $19.99 and has never been free before. One wrinkle worth flagging: Epic says Foretales will be offered on its own, which breaks a streak of nearly three months of at least two freebies per week, though the store notes another title could still be added before July 23.

The current weekly pair is still live and runs the full week: Echo Generation: Midnight Edition (OpenCritic 77, Strong, a 90s-style turn-based RPG, $24.99) and Luto (OpenCritic 77, Metacritic 79, a P.T.-inspired psychological horror, $19.99), both free to keep through Thursday, July 23 at 8am PT (Polygon, July 16; Epic Games Store).

Three surprise developer freebies are also still claimable, separate from the weekly rotation, and each has its own end date: No Rush! Tower Edition ($2.49, a 3D platformer) through July 20 at 10am UTC, KeepUp Survival ($14.99, an open-world survival sandbox, Mixed on Steam) through July 19 at 10am PDT, and Together After Dark ($2.99, four-player found-footage co-op horror) through July 27 (GameRant, July 14).

Weekend deadlines and the forward calendar

A compact sweep of what is ending and what is coming, all dates checked against primary sources.

Xbox Free Play Days (this round ends Sunday, July 19): Crisol: Theater of Idols (a Blumhouse survival horror, Steam Very Positive), Planet Zoo: Console Edition ($49.99, down 90 percent to $4.99 if you want to keep it), and Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports ($49.99, down 70 percent to $14.99) are free to play for Game Pass Ultimate, Premium, and Essential members through Sunday, July 19. Separately, GTA Online on Xbox Series X|S is free for all Xbox members, no Game Pass required, through Tuesday, July 21, and Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is also free for all Xbox members during the Free Play Days window (Xbox Wire, July 16).

PlayStation Plus (unchanged): The July monthly games, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, For the King II, and CrossCode, remain claimable for PS Plus members through Monday, August 3 (PlayStation Blog).

Prime Gaming: The July 16 drop, led by Escape Academy on an Epic key, is live now. The next batch lands Thursday, July 23 with In Sound Mind and Mystic Academy (Amazon Game Studios).

Steam: No sale is live. The Social Deduction Fest closed July 16. The next event is Train Fest, July 20 to 27, a genre spotlight with no historic-low claims to verify yet, and the next storewide sale is the Autumn Sale, October 1 to 8 (Steamworks).

Game Pass ahead: The Planet Crafter arrives day one on July 21 (Ultimate and PC), now without Tony Hawk 1+2. Halo: Campaign Evolved is set for day one on July 28 (GameRant, July 16).