Quick answer: Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Perfect Dark, both Viva Piñata games, Gears of War: Judgment and Halo: Spartan Assault join the Game Pass Essential library on Nov 15, 2026. The Ultimate, PC Game Pass and Premium side of wave 1 runs from Nov 3 to Nov 17, led by Football Manager 27, Escape Academy 2, Warhammer Survivors, Thronefall and Aphelion. Current as of Xbox Wire’s Nov 3 wave 1 post.
The cheapest Game Pass tier is the big winner of November’s first wave. Xbox Wire’s November wave 1 post confirms a block of Rare classics for Game Pass Essential on Nov 15, the same day GoldenEye 007 leaves the service. Below is every wave 1 date with the tiers Xbox lists for each game.
Coming to Game Pass Essential on Nov 15
All eight arrive on the same day:
- Banjo-Kazooie (cloud and console)
- Banjo-Tooie (cloud and console)
- Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (cloud and console)
- Perfect Dark (cloud and console)
- Viva Piñata (cloud and console)
- Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise (cloud and console)
- Gears of War: Judgment (cloud and console)
- Halo: Spartan Assault (cloud, console and PC)
Six of the eight are Rare games, which softens the blow of losing GoldenEye 007 that same day. Halo: Spartan Assault is the only one Xbox lists for PC.
Every Ultimate, PC Game Pass and Premium date in wave 1
- Nov 3: Football Manager 27 on PC (Ultimate, PC Game Pass). Pit of Goblin, an online horror co-op game (Ultimate, Premium, PC Game Pass).
- Nov 4: Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors (Premium, and joining Ultimate and PC Game Pass). Void/Breaker in its 1.0 release, now on Xbox Series X|S and cloud too (Ultimate, Premium, PC Game Pass).
- Nov 5: Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School, day one (Ultimate, PC Game Pass). Firefighting Simulator: Ignite (Ultimate, Premium, PC Game Pass). MySims Cozy Bundle, now on console and cloud (Ultimate, PC Game Pass).
- Nov 10: Football Manager 27 Console, Warhammer Survivors and Tanuki: Pon’s Summer, all day one (Ultimate, PC Game Pass).
- Nov 11: Hope in the City, day one (Ultimate, PC Game Pass). Thronefall (Ultimate, Premium, PC Game Pass).
- Nov 12: John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando (Ultimate, Premium, PC Game Pass).
- Nov 17: Aphelion from Don’t Nod (Premium, and joining Ultimate and PC Game Pass). Paw Patrol: Dino World (Ultimate, Premium, PC Game Pass).
Which tier gets what
Ultimate is the only tier listed on every new game in wave 1, so Ultimate members have nothing to check. Premium picks up eight of the wave 1 games: Pit of Goblin, Vampire Crawlers, Void/Breaker, Firefighting Simulator: Ignite, Thronefall, Toxic Commando, Aphelion and Paw Patrol: Dino World. PC Game Pass is listed on every wave 1 game, including the PC version of Football Manager 27 that is out now.
None of the wave 1 new releases are listed for Essential, so the Nov 15 batch of classics is the reason to keep that tier this month.
Perks across all tiers
Xbox also lists two benefits for every tier, Essential included: ad-free Microsoft Sudoku with double XP from Nov 10, and a Legacy Bundle for The First Descendant on Nov 17.
What leaves in November
Thirteen games leave on Nov 15, including GoldenEye 007, Wreckfest and 1000xResist. We already broke down every departure, with dates, in our leaving Xbox Game Pass November 2026 guide. For the early picture before this post, see our first November Game Pass roundup.
