Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Adds Polarizing 2024 Game

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate has added Madden NFL 25 to its content library. This is the second new title to reach Microsoft’s subscription service in February 2025, as well as the 14th Xbox Game Pass Ultimate release since the turn of the year.

Released in mid-August 2024, Madden NFL 25 was met with a polarizing public response at launch, as underlined by its average score of 69 and 36% reviewer recommendation rate on OpenCritic. Player reactions to the game were in line with its critical reception, with Madden NFL 25 debuting to “Mixed” Steam user reviews—a rating that still persists half a year later.

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EA Sports’ polarizing football game made its way to Microsoft’s subscription catalog on February 6, debuting as the second Xbox Game Pass Ultimate addition in February 2025. Apart from the highest tier of the service, Madden NFL 25 is also available on PC Game Pass and can be streamed via the XGP Ultimate-exclusive Xbox Cloud Gaming platform.

While reviews from both players and critics were mixed, Madden NFL 25 was a massive commercial success. According to market data shared by Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, the latest entry in the long-running football series was the sixth best-selling game in the U.S. in 2024—despite launching with only three and a half months left in the year. So, although many reviewers criticized Madden NFL 25 for its aggressive monetization practices and argued that its gameplay fluidity was a step down from EA Sports College Football 25—released just a month earlier—these complaints seemingly weren’t echoed by the general public, or at least weren’t enough to affect the game’s commercial momentum.

Upcoming Xbox Game Pass Games

Will Madden NFL 25 Ever Reach Xbox Game Pass Standard?

Like with all Electronic Arts titles that make their way to Microsoft’s subscription service, Madden NFL 25 is part of the platform’s EA Play catalog. As such, it’s not expected to ever be available on XGP Standard, so anyone who wants to play it as part of their subscription will need to purchase either a PC Game Pass or XGP Ultimate membership.

Xbox Game Pass currently has two more confirmed titles for February 2025. The first of those is Kingdom Two Crowns, an indie strategy game that has players controlling a monarch on a quest to defend their kingdom from monsters. Originally released in December 2018, Kingdom Two Crowns already had a year-long stint on Xbox Game Pass, which ended in December 2021. The third installment in the Kingdom series will be followed by Obsidian’s fantasy RPG Avowed, a day-one release that’s set to arrive on February 18. Three days beforehand, Xbox Game Pass is scheduled to lose seven titles, including Tales of Arise and Indivisible.