Microsoft announces January 2017’s free Games with Gold titles, which include Deathtrap: World of Van Helsing and the second season of Killer Instinct.

As we move into the New Year, Xbox Live Gold subscribers can look forward to a strong start to 2017’s Games with Gold lineup. Kicking things off right in January will be four new Xbox titles, two for Xbox One and two for Xbox 360, that will give Xbox gamers and their friends plenty of opportunities to compete and cooperate with each other.

From January 1st until January 31st, Gold subscribers can pick up Deathtrap: World of Van Helsing at no cost. The tower-defense style game has been available on PC for a couple years, and is coming to Xbox One with a full range of activities for the Microsoft console owners. Players can test their skills against increasingly difficult AI enemies, or challenge friends and strangers to PvP where one player takes on the role of defender, while the other attacks.

For those who prefer more traditional fighting games, Killer Instinct Season 2 will be available on Xbox One for free from January 16th to February 15th. For those who picked up Killer Instinct when it was free on Games with Gold in January 2016 can look forward to nine new characters and the “Rivals” Story Mode, which extends the campaign started in Season 1.

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On the Xbox 360 front, gamers have a lot to look forward to. From January 1st to the 15th, Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners can download The Cave for free. The Cave is a puzzle-plaforming adventure title by Double Fine Productions. The game is set in a magical cave, where seven characters from across time and space have come together to learn about themselves and their destinies. The Cave is mostly single-player, but can be played cooperatively by up to three players on a single console.

January’s other free Xbox 360 title is Rayman: Origins, the highly-rated platformer from Ubisoft. Rayman: Origins features wacky characters on a mission to restore happy dreams to the Bubble Dreamer by defeating monsters in the Land of the Livid Dead. Players can tackle the title solo or with up to three friends that can hop in and drop out at any time.

Thanks to Xbox One’s backward compatibility feature, each Games with Gold Xbox 360 title will be available to download and play on Xbox One when the game becomes free, if it isn’t available on backward compatibility before then. Plus, as a quick reminder, a few of December’s Xbox Games with Gold titles are still available for download, including Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition, Outlast, and Xbox 360’s Burnout Paradise.

What do you think about January 2017's free Games with Gold? Which titles are you looking forward to the most? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Xbox’s next Games with Gold period begins on January 1, 2017.