It's no secret that Microsoft has put a lot of its focus on the Xbox Game Pass subscription service. In fact, Xbox Game Pass is really the key to Microsoft's strategy moving in to the next-generation of gaming, with the company investing a lot to ensure that Xbox Game Pass' value continues to grow. But while more and more games are added to Xbox Game Pass each month, other titles leave the service as well.
The most recent game to leave Xbox Game Pass is none other than Mortal Kombat X. The 2015 fighting game earned critical acclaim at the time of its release, and while it may be overshadowed by Mortal Kombat 11 lately, it's still considered one of the best fighting games available on the Xbox One. Its departure means that Xbox Game Pass is potentially less enticing for fighting game fanatics, but on the bright side, there are still a few fighting games available on the service.
At the time of this writing, there are still five traditional fighting games available to play through Xbox Game Pass on console. These include Killer Instinct, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, Soulcalibur 6, and Tekken 7. So while it's no doubt disappointing for some fighting game fans that Mortal Kombat X is no longer on Xbox Game Pass, there are still some options available.
That being said, it should be noted that Tekken 7 is also leaving Xbox Game Pass soon. An exact date for Tekken 7's departure has not been confirmed at the time of this writing, but it's expected to be leaving on January 15. This will be another blow to the Xbox Game Pass fighting game community, but that's just the nature of the service. Games come and go, and it's likely most of the other fighting games currently available for Game Pass will leave at some point down the line.
One fighting game that's guaranteed to never leave Xbox Game Pass is Killer Instinct. Killer Instinct was published by Microsoft, and there's no reason for the company to remove its own games from the service. In fact, one of the main selling points of Xbox Game Pass is the fact that it gives subscribers immediate, day one access to titles published by Xbox. So while fighting games like Mortal Kombat X and Tekken 7 are leaving Xbox Game Pass, fans of the genre will always have at least one game to play.