Microsoft's first wave of April Game Pass additions is one of the stronger monthly lineups the service has put together in a while. Eighteen games across the month, with Hades 2 arriving day one on April 14 as the obvious centrepiece. The problem is that GTA V leaves on April 15, and that single exit will sting more than any amount of new arrivals can fully offset.
Hades 2 has been a Switch 2 exclusive since September 2025, so its arrival on Xbox Series X|S and PC, with day-one Game Pass access on Ultimate, Premium, and PC Game Pass tiers, is a proper get. Supergiant's roguelite sequel is a longer, denser game than the original, and if you haven't already sunk time into it on Nintendo's hardware, this is a good entry point. It lands alongside Replaced, the long-in-development cyberpunk 2.5D action game set in an alternate 1980s America, which is also a day-one Game Pass release. Two genuinely anticipated games on the same date is not nothing.
The rest of the wave fills out nicely around those two. Vampire Crawlers, the card-based dungeon crawler spun out of the Vampire Survivors universe, arrives April 21. Kiln, Double Fine's pottery party game, follows on April 23. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) joins on April 17, which is a perfectly sensible catalogue addition given that game still has a stronger reputation than most of what Activision has shipped since. FBC: Firebreak, Remedy's co-op shooter that launched earlier this year, also gets expanded to the Game Pass Premium tier on April 8. Credit where it's due: Microsoft has loaded this month with variety rather than padding it with filler.
The GTA V Exit Is the Real Story
And then there's the other side of the ledger. Five games leave Game Pass on April 15: Ashen, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, My Little Pony: A Zephyr Heights Mystery, Terra Invicta, and Grand Theft Auto V. The first four are losses of varying significance. GTA V is a different matter entirely. It's one of the most-played games on the planet, still pulling in enormous numbers more than a decade after launch, and its presence on Game Pass has been a genuine subscriber perk. Losing it the day after Hades 2 arrives is the kind of scheduling that makes the wins feel smaller than they should.
There's no indication yet whether GTA V's exit is permanent or a negotiating gap before a new licensing deal. Rockstar and Microsoft haven't said anything publicly. What's clear is that anyone who's been meaning to finally play through GTA V's story mode or dip back into GTA Online has until April 15 to do it under their existing subscription.
Elsewhere in the wave, Football Manager 26 comes to PC and console on April 13, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered gets added to the Game Pass Premium tier on April 16 (it was already on Ultimate and PC Game Pass), and Planet Coaster 2 arrives on April 9. The Game Pass Essential tier, the more limited lower-cost option, also picks up two additional games on April 8 with DayZ and Warhammer: Vermintide 2.
As April lineups go, this one genuinely delivers on the high end. Hades 2 day one is the kind of addition that justifies a subscription on its own for players who missed it on Switch 2. But the GTA V departure is a reminder that what Game Pass gives, it can also take back, often with minimal notice and no explanation. Watch the April 15 date if that one matters to you.
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