Xbox Winter of Arcade lineup announced

Nine new games, among them Mutant Year Zero, Subnautica and the recently dated Below, highlight Xbox’s Winter of Arcade offerings beginning now through Dec. 18, the company announced tonight at The Game Awards 2018.

The lineup includes Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom, Mutant Year Zero and Subnautica, which launched on Tuesday; Ashen and Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek, available tomorrow (Dec. 7); Kingdom Two Crowns on Dec. 11; Desert Child on Dec. 12; Below on Dec. 14, and Donut County on Dec. 18.

Mutant Year Zero, Ashen, Kingdom Two Crowns and Below are also day-and-date launches on Xbox Game Pass, as part of an expansion into third-party offerings Microsoft announced for that subscription at November’s X018 event.

Additionally, Microsoft is offering $5 in online store credit for each game Xbox users buy after the first one, or $40 if they buy all nine, in a promotion running through Dec. 21.

Winter of Arcade, also announced at X018, is a throwback to the Summer of Arcade promotions that ran for the Xbox 360 on Xbox Live from 2008 through 2013. Since the launch of the Xbox One that year, the ID@Xbox program has taken on the old program’s mission of spotlighting smaller, independently developed games.

The original Summer of Arcade delivered Braid, Trials HD, Monday Night Combat, Bastion and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons among the 24 titles that launched over a six-year stretch.