Xbox Game Pass is losing Return to Monkey Island—one of its highest-rated games—on October 31st. With two more titles marked as dropping on the same day, the full list of upcoming Xbox Game Pass departures is expected to be officially announced during the week of October 20th.
Xbox Game Pass removals are usually announced every two weeks with the service's two monthly release waves. Sometimes, however, Microsoft reveals them in advance through the “Releasing Soon” section of the Xbox app's Game Pass tab. This happened on October 18, when the app was refreshed to list three titles that would be dropping by the end of the month.
Return to Monkey Island with an early departure from the Xbox Game Pass
New October 31 removal included Return to Monkey Island, Jusantand Metal Slug Strategy. In terms of critical acclaim, the latter Monkey Island The adventure game is the biggest disadvantage of the three, as reflected by its near 97% critic recommendation rate on OpenCritic. The game also holds an average score of 87 on the aggregator platform based on over 100 reviews, placing it in the 98th percentile of all titles in the OpenCritic database and among the highest rated games currently available on Xbox Game Pass.
All confirmed Xbox Game Pass games are dropping on October 31st
|
the game |
added |
OpenCritic average score |
Recommended rate |
How long to beat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Metal Slug Strategy |
November 2024 |
76 |
64% |
6-44 hours |
|
Return to Monkey Island |
November 2022 |
87 |
97% |
10-17 hours |
|
Jusant |
October 2023 |
84 |
91% |
4-8 hours |
However Jusant Don't let Nod's sales fail to meet expectations, it's not far behind Return to Monkey IslandLevel of critical acclaim, with an average score of 84 and a 91% critic recommendation rate on OpenCritic, placing it in the 91st percentile of all titles on the platform. Both of these titles can easily be beat before Xbox Game Pass drops at the end of October 2025. On the contrary, Metal Slug Strategy It's a slightly longer experience, with crowdsourced data indicating that a thorough run of the strategy RPG could take more than 40 hours.
Metal Slug Strategy A Day One Xbox Game Pass was released in November 2024 before joining the service as standard (now called Premium) in May 2025. Historically, the “leaving soon” section of the Xbox app's Game Pass tab hasn't always been the most accurate indicator of imminent departure, with Microsoft occasionally expanding its content. The official Wave 2 elimination lineup for this month is expected to be announced on or around October 21. That's also the day Xbox is set to get Game Pass Ultimate. Ninja Gaiden 4 and Wicked West.
