Update: Xbox’s Larry Hryb confirmed the leak by officially revealing the games. Starting on May 1, Kalimba is free in Japan and other Asian territories instead on Xbox One. Starting on May 16, SlashDash is free in Japan and other Asian territories instead on Xbox One. We spoke with Xbox Support if anyone could change their region and redeem the Games with Gold in Japan and they said:
“Yes, you can redeem the games with Gold when you change your marketplace in Japan and this is not considered as Marketplace Theft since you have the Gold subscription on your account. Yes. No problem. I can assure you, you are not doing anything wrong my friend.”
This means that even if you’re in the United States or any other country apart from Japan, Taiwan and Korea, you can change your Xbox One region from the website and redeem the different Games with Gold. Just click on the globe icon at the bottom left of the Xbox Store website and change it to Japan. Search for SlashDash and redeem it for free. As long as you have an active Xbox Live Gold membership, it’s valid according to Xbox Support who verified it with the enforcement staff. You can read a full copy of the transcript here.
May’s Games with Gold have been revealed! On Xbox One, you can look forward to Defense Grid 2 and Costume Quest 2 and on Xbox 360 and Xbox One via backward compatibility, get ready for Grid 2 and Peggle. These games may not be blockbusters like what we’ve seen recently, but we can’t expect that every month.
What do you think of May’s Games with Gold? Will you be playing these titles, or are you uninterested? I, for one, am looking forward to playing Peggle again. Let us know in the comments below.
Tristan was a regular ICXM contributor between 2015–2017, publishing 51 articles across opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news. Their work focused on hands-on reviews, platform commentary, and breaking-news reporting during the Xbox One X launch year and Microsoft’s wider Play Anywhere / UWP gaming initiative. They post on X as @tbogost.