July 12, 2026

A surprise free game is live on Epic today, Xbox's free trials end tonight, and ten games leave Game Pass Tuesday

An indie platformer appeared as an extra Epic freebie alongside the weekly pair. Xbox's three free trials close tonight, the Steam free weekend ends Monday just as a day-one Game Pass title arrives, and ten games leave Game Pass Tuesday. Every end date checked.

Epic: a surprise third free game, plus the weekly pair

Three games are free to keep on the Epic Games Store right now, not the usual two. The extra one is a developer giveaway running alongside the weekly lineup, and it is the only genuinely new free-game drop this cycle.

• No Rush! - Tower Edition (Epic Games Store): a 3D platformer from FiveStar where you climb a 300-meter tower dodging spikes, swinging hammers, and crushing platforms. Normally $2.49. There is no review consensus to lean on here. The Steam version (NoRush!) has just two user reviews and no Metacritic or OpenCritic score, so treat it as a low-stakes free claim rather than a hidden gem. Free to keep through July 20 at 10am, per GameRant. That is eight days from now, the longest window of anything in this issue.

The weekly pair is unchanged and still claimable:

• Nova Lands ($19.99) and Tattoo Tycoon ($29.99): free through Thursday, July 16 at 8am PT. As covered Tuesday. On July 16 they are replaced by Echo Generation: Midnight Edition (Metacritic 70, a 90s-nostalgia turn-based RPG) and Luto (OpenCritic 78, a P.T.-style horror walkthrough).

This week's deadline calendar

A dense stretch runs from today through Thursday. Each line below is a window closing or opening, with the date first. Most of these were flagged earlier in the week, so this is a status check, not a re-tell: the news is that several are now down to their final hours.

• Today, Sun Jul 12, tonight: Xbox Free Play Days end. MLB The Show 26, The Alters, and Stuffed stop being free to play tonight for Game Pass Ultimate, Premium, and Essential members. MLB The Show 26 and The Alters are also 50% off if you want to keep them. Covered Friday.
• Mon Jul 13, 10am PT: Steam free-to-play weekend ends. Against the Storm (95% positive on Steam, 91 on Metacritic), ARK: Survival Ascended, and gogh: Focus with Your Avatar stop being free to play. Their discounts (Against the Storm at its $8.99 all-time low) run through July 23. Covered yesterday.
• Mon Jul 13: Ascend to Zero hits Game Pass. A time-bending action roguelike, launching day one on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Xbox Wire.
• Mon Jul 13, 10am PT: Steam Social Deduction Fest opens. A four-day sale and demo event for hidden-role and social-deduction games, running through July 16. No historic-low claims yet, the deals go live with the fest.
• Tue Jul 14: PBA Pro Bowling 2026 hits Game Pass.
• Tue Jul 15: ten games leave Game Pass. PowerWash Simulator, Stellaris, Dungeons of Hinterberg, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, EA FC 24, and five others. Use your 20% subscriber discount before they go. Polygon.
• Thu Jul 16: Epic swaps and Prime drops. Epic's weekly pair turns over (see above). Prime Gaming adds Escape Academy (on Epic, the headliner of the three, a co-op escape-room game), Poly Vita (Legacy Games), and Framed Collection (GOG). Amazon Game Studios.

Still claimable, unchanged

• PlayStation Plus July: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, For the King II, and CrossCode are free for Essential-and-up subscribers through August 3. PlayStation Blog.
• Steam free-to-keep, still pending: The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante and Yet Another Zombie Defense HD are still slated to go free-to-keep on Steam this month, but no start date has been confirmed as of today. Worth a watch, not a wait.