Game Pass closes out September with Gears of War: E-Day, Dune: Awakening and Minecraft Dungeons 2

Microsoft has laid out the second wave of games coming to Xbox Game Pass between the second half of September and the first days of October. As reported by Vandal, the list kicks off with RuneScape: Dragonwilds, already available on Xbox Series, PC and cloud, and builds up to three names every subscriber will be circling in red: Dune: Awakening, Minecraft Dungeons 2 and, above all, Gears of War: E-Day.

Why does this matter to us at Underworld Lordz? Because this wave is no filler. We're talking about a prequel to one of Xbox's historic competitive franchises, a multiplayer survival game that has had PC players talking for months, and a co-op sequel that fits squad nights perfectly. If you're a content creator or run a team, this schedule tells you what Discord is going to be talking about for the next few weeks.

What you need to know

• RuneScape: Dragonwilds is the first to arrive: it's already available with Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass, on Xbox Series, PC and cloud.
• On September 16, four games already on Premium are also expanding to Ultimate and PC Game Pass: Marvel Cosmic Invasion, Planet of Lana 2, Routine and Ultimate Sheep Raccoon.
• The big draws of this wave are Dune: Awakening, Minecraft Dungeons 2 and Gears of War: E-Day.
• The wave runs from mid-September to early October, with additions spread across different dates.
• The base information comes from Vandal; we'll keep expanding the schedule as each date is confirmed.

The schedule, date by date

What Vandal details with certainty are the first two days of the wave. After that, the list continues from September 17 with more titles, including the three headliners, whose exact dates within this window don't appear in the information we have, so we're not going to make them up.

What changes and who it affects

The September 16 detail is more interesting than it looks. The four games arriving on Ultimate and PC Game Pass that day were already available on Premium, meaning the mid-tier plan had them first. It's a reminder of how Microsoft is staggering the catalog across tiers: not everything arrives at the same time for everyone, and if you play on PC with the PC-specific plan, some titles reach you later than they do on console.

For our community, the three big names each hit a different note. Gears of War: E-Day is a return to the origins of a franchise whose multiplayer was tournament territory on Xbox for years; seeing it land on Game Pass from day one lowers the barrier to entry for anyone looking to put together a roster. Dune: Awakening is a persistent survival game where squad organization matters as much as aim, ideal for those looking for a long-term project. And Minecraft Dungeons 2 is the perfect choice for laid-back co-op streams with the team.

Our take

Gears of War: E-Day launching straight onto Game Pass is, by far, the biggest news of this wave. For a Spanish-speaking team with members on both sides of the Atlantic, letting everyone try the multiplayer without paying full price removes the usual "I don't have it" excuse. If Microsoft wants the Gears competitive scene to have a pulse again, this is the right move. Now comes the usual caveat: the netcode and regional servers need to hold up, because latency between Europe and the Americas is still the real enemy of any cross-region versus match.

We're more skeptical about the tier staggering. Having four games arrive first on Premium and only later on Ultimate and PC Game Pass makes life harder for anyone organizing group sessions: nobody wants to find out in the lobby that half the squad doesn't have access yet. If you're going to play as a team, check which plan everyone has before planning anything.

For creators, the takeaway is clear: there's content for the entire stretch. Dragonwilds is already available so you can start recording today, and the three big ones give you material through October. Prioritize Gears if your audience is competitive and Dune if you prefer long series with clan progression.

What do you think?

The wave is here, and the newsroom is already debating whether E-Day is worth the team going all in on Gears again. Which of these games will you try first, and do you think Gears of War: E-Day has room to return to the competitive scene? Let us know in the team chat or on our Discord.