The short version
- Halo: Campaign Evolved joins Game Pass day one on July 28 (Ultimate and PC Game Pass) — the first mainline Halo campaign to also ship on PlayStation
- Eight games leave the service on July 31, headlined by Celeste and Crusader Kings 3
- Four day-one titles in this wave: Shift at Midnight, Halo: Campaign Evolved, Mistfall Hunter, and Beast of Reincarnation
- Still to come this wave: Mistfall Hunter (July 30), Corsair Cove (July 31, PC only), and Heretic + Hexen plus Beast of Reincarnation on August 4
- Departing games get the standard at-least-20% member discount until they drop off, if you want to keep one
Game Pass’s second July wave is a short one with a very large name at the front of it. Halo: Campaign Evolved arrives on the service day one on July 28, and on the same week, eight games head for the exit on July 31 — including two of the highest-rated titles on the whole service.
What’s arriving
Seven games across the back end of July and the first days of August:
- The Planet Crafter — July 21 (Ultimate, Premium, PC Game Pass)
- Shift at Midnight — July 22, day one (Ultimate, PC Game Pass)
- Hell is Us — July 23 (Ultimate, Premium, PC Game Pass)
- Halo: Campaign Evolved — July 28, day one (Ultimate, PC Game Pass; cloud, console, handheld, and PC)
- Mistfall Hunter — July 30, day one (Ultimate, PC Game Pass)
- Corsair Cove — July 31, PC only (Ultimate, PC Game Pass)
- Heretic + Hexen — August 4 (Premium, Ultimate, PC Game Pass)
- Beast of Reincarnation — August 4, day one (Ultimate, PC Game Pass)
Halo is the obvious anchor. Campaign Evolved is a full Unreal Engine 5 remake of the original Combat Evolved campaign with three brand-new missions bolted on, and it launches simultaneously on Xbox Series X|S, PC, and — for the first time in the franchise’s history — PlayStation 5. On Game Pass it costs nothing extra on Ultimate or PC Game Pass, against $49.99 for the standard edition anywhere else.
Worth flagging for anyone who bought in early: Premium Edition owners have had early access since July 23, so the July 28 date is the standard launch, not the first time anyone’s played it.
What’s leaving on July 31
Eight games, all on the same day:
- Celeste
- Crusader Kings 3
- Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord
- Rain World
- Sniper Elite: Resistance
- Back to the Dawn
- My Friendly Neighborhood
- Whiskerwood
Celeste and Crusader Kings 3 are the losses that sting. Both sit in the 90s on OpenCritic — Celeste at a 92 average, Crusader Kings 3 in the aggregator’s 99th percentile — and both are the kind of game people keep on the service for two years and never quite get around to starting.
If either is sitting in your backlog, you have until July 31 either to finish it or to buy it at the member discount, which runs at a minimum of 20% off for subscribers up to the cutoff. Bannerlord is the other one worth a thought: it’s a hundred-hour game, and four days is not a hundred hours.
Why it matters
Game Pass waves are mostly noise, but this one has a real deadline attached to it. A day-one Halo is the headline and it isn’t going anywhere — it’s a first-party title, so it’ll sit on the service indefinitely. The eight departures are the part with an actual clock on them, and two of them are games that routinely show up on “best thing on Game Pass” lists.
The short version for the week: install Halo whenever, and deal with Celeste and Crusader Kings 3 before Friday.
Sources: Insider Gaming — Xbox Game Pass July wave 2 titles revealed, Noisy Pixel — Xbox Game Pass July 2026 wave 2 games, Game Rant — Xbox Game Pass losing Crusader Kings 3, Celeste and six more on July 31, Xbox Wire — Halo: Campaign Evolved launches July 28
