Yesterday, Sony announced the free PS Plus games for June, headlined by Konami's Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes, and featuring six games in total. While Microsoft's Games with Gold offerings for June are not as plentiful as the competition, there's still some heavy hitters coming to the service.

For Xbox One owners, Pool Nation FX will remain on the service for yet another. June will mark the third month in which people have a chance to download the game. Meanwhile, the tower defense game CastleStorm: Definitive Edition is being cycled out once the new Games with Gold titles are made available early next week.

Replacing CastleStorm is one of the more high profile Games with Gold titles offered on Xbox One to date. It is Double Fine's Massive Chalice, a turn-based strategy game that was originally funded through Kickstarter. Like Double Fine's other Kickstarter-funded title, Broken Age, Massive Chalice was a resounding success on the crowdfunding site, surpassing its $750,000 funding goal in just five days.

Since then, Massive Chalice has gone through a beta as well as an Early Access period on PC, but the full release is June 1st. In its debut on Xbox One, the game will be made available for free for Xbox Live Gold subscribers, so there's no reason not to try it out.

Meanwhile, Xbox 360 will be receiving two games as per usual. The first game, Just Cause 2, will be available from June 1st to June 15th. The second game is the 2014 Thief reboot, which will be available to download on 360 from June 16th to the 30th. Just Cause 2 is an over-the-top, open world action game featuring a focus on vehicular stunts and zipping around the game world with the main character's trademark grappling hook. The Thief reboot received mixed reception upon release, but it still offers some entertainment for stealth game enthusiasts.

What's interesting is that June's Games with Gold titles actually share some similarities with Sony's PS Plus offerings for June. For example, both PlayStation Plus subscribers and Xbox Live Gold subscribers will be able to look forward to a turn-based strategy game next month for free. For PlayStation, it's Skulls of the Shogun: Bone-A-Fide Edition, and for Xbox, it's of course, the aforementioned Massive Chalice.

Another similarity between the free games in June is that they both include a prequel to a major game coming out in 2015. On PS Plus, it's Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes, which is the lead-in game for Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, and on Xbox it's Just Cause 2 – the predecessor to the highly anticipated Just Cause 3. We've seen Sony and Microsoft use this strategy in the past when it comes to their subscription services, and making the predecessors to upcoming games available for free it potentially increases interest in the forthcoming sequels.

May's Games with Gold will be available until Sunday, the 31st. That will be the last chance to download CastleStorm: Definitive Edition and F1 2013, so anyone interested in either game should be sure to do so before the time runs out.

Source: Major Nelson