Xbox gamers have had a lot to look forward to this month. Not only did Halo Infinite's single-player campaign launch after years of wait, but Xbox Game Pass has dropped a big collection of over ten new games to play this past week alone. But Xbox isn't stopping there. The company has a weekend of free game trials planned for December 16 through December 19, featuring titles from franchises including Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty.
The first, and easily most exciting game included in Xbox's free weekend is Activision's recently released Call of Duty: Vanguard. While technically separate from the other games on the list, Activision is still making the multiplayer for Call of Duty: Vanguard entirely free for the weekend. This is Activision's most-recent standalone release in the Call of Duty franchise, so a full free weekend of multiplayer is quite surprising.
The second game on the list is one of Ubisoft's most popular releases from the past several years. It's Assassin's Creed Odyssey, which built off the success of Assassin's Creed Origins but with an epic Greek story based in the Mediterranean Sea. While Ubisoft has since released Assassin's Creed Valhalla, apparently it's not quite ready to share that game via such a large window of free gaming time. Assassin's Creed Odyssey has plenty to offer in its stead, however.
Third and last is a surprise inclusion and may be overshadowed quite a bit by Call of Duty: Vanguard's multiplayer and Assassin's Creed Odyssey. The third game is Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, a sports game allowing players to experience many of the different events hosted at the 2020 summer Olympics. Needless to say, Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 stands apart from the other two games, offering a diverse range of games for Xbox players to choose from this weekend.
Call of Duty: Vanguard's free weekend is a bit different than the other games. It'll be entirely free to access from December 16 at 10:00 AM PT through December 21 at 10:00 AM PT. That's five solid days of free access to Call of Duty: Vanguard's multiplayer, including the game's new Champion Hill survival tournament game mode.
As for Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, to start Xbox users must have a subscription to Xbox Live Gold or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. For those that do, the two games will be available from December 16 at 12:01 PT through Sunday, December 19 at 11:59 PM PT. Both games will also be available at discounted prices if Xbox gamers want to continue playing after the free weekend.