As the new year approaches, Microsoft has announced the free games Xbox Live subscribers will get next month as part of its Games with Gold offering. For January, Xbox users can get their hands on Breakdown, Dead Rising, The King of Fighters XIII, and Little Nightmares.
All four games are available to any Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S owner with an Xbox Live Gold or Game Pass Ultimate membership. Check the list below to learn the availability of each.
Free Xbox Games With Gold For January 2021
- Little Nightmares: January 1-31
- The King of Fighters XIII: January 1-15
- Breakdown: January 16-31
- Dead Rising: January 16-February 15
Developed by Tarsier Studios and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, Little Nightmares is a 2D horror platformer where players must survive a massive industrial ship called The Maw with the fragile, yellow rainjacket-clad child Six. Having released to much critical acclaim in 2017 and receiving a few pieces of DLC thereafter, Tarsier Studios announced a sequel was in the works in 2019. Little Nightmares 2 drops on February 11, 2021.
Though not the most-recent entry of The King of Fighters, The King of Fighters XIII is one of the more recognizable, having been on the market for six years before creator SNK dropped The King of Fighters XIV in 2016. The King of Fighters XIII features mechanics familiar to fans of the series, such as its traditional 3v3 team composition. This entry also introduces the brand-new EX mode, a buff that unleashes a more powerful version of a character’s special. SNK recently confirmed that a reveal for The King of Fighters XV premieres early next month.
Dead Rising is Capcom’s wackier take on the zombie apocalypse, following journalist Frank West as he’s trapped in a mall nestled within a town suffering from an outbreak. Players can use everything in the mall as a weapon, from chairs and clothing racks to guns and explosives, or craft their own gear to clear the zombie horde and escape the Willamette mall in one piece.
The oldest game on the list and an original Xbox title at that, Breakdown is a first-person action game that was lauded for its choice of perspective to tell its story, something more common these days with the reemergence of immersive sim game design. Players control Derrick Cole, an amnesiac dude who, after discovering his new powers, must fight his way out of the industrial lab that performed inhumane experiments on him–and many others.
