Four Games Are Available Today With Xbox Game Pass (December 9)

One of the biggest drops of the month!

by Ben Kerry Tue 9th Dec 2025

Four Games Are Available Today With Xbox Game Pass (December 9)

Welcome to your latest Xbox Game Pass update! Today, we have four titles joining the main Game Pass Ultimate library - three across console and PC, and one PC-only addition.

Here's all the info you need on today's Xbox Game Pass titles (December 9):

A Game About Digging A Hole (Series X|S, PC, Cloud) - PCGP, Premium, Ultimate

"A minimalist game about digging a hole in the garden of a newly purchased house. Collect resources, sell them, upgrade your equipment and discover a mysterious secret. Costs you only one coffee!"

Death Howl (PC) - PCGP, Ultimate

"Journey through the sorrowful spirit world in a soulslike deck builder. Craft cards and claim powerful totems to defeat the woeful spirits lurking in the mystical lands. Unravel the tale of a grieving mother in her desperate attempt to defy death and bring back her son."

Dome Keeper (Console, PC, Cloud) - PCGP, Premium, Ultimate

"Defend against waves of alien monsters in this unique roguelike action miner. Dig for resources, collect useful gadgets, and upgrade equipment to increase odds of survival – just hurry back before your dome is destroyed!"

Ultimate Sheep Raccoon (Console, PC, Cloud) - PCGP, Ultimate

"Ultimate Sheep Raccoon is a bike-racing party game where you and your friends build the course together. Add obstacles and dangerous traps, take the lead with power-ups, and race to the finish!"

Which Of These Will You Be Playing? (146 votes)

A Game About Digging a Hole47%
Death Howl17%
Dome Keeper26%
Ultimate Sheep Raccoon10%

Which of these are you playing? Vote in the poll up above and let us know!

Ben is a News Writer at Pure Xbox, and is a fan of action, racing and straight-up shootin' in any Xbox game he can get his hands on. When he's not clutching an Xbox controller like his life depends on it, Ben spends his time listening to music that's far too old for him, watching football on the telly and probably eating somewhere.

1
Fiendish-Beaver
Tue 9th Dec 2025

In a real rarity, Ultimate actually gets 3 of the 4 titles on offer here, though even then, PC still got more! There's no two ways about it, PC is the service that is getting fatter out of all the tiers, though that maybe good news for when the PCBox finally arrives.

What I will say though, is that in my opinion, this is a pretty weak selection of titles to end the year on, and if this is a sign of the type of titles that will form the bulk of those '75 Day One Titles' that will be hitting the service, then we are in for many, many such disappointments. Indeed, it looks like most of the best day one games we will be getting will be first-party titles, and most third-party day one games will be little more than filler.

Personally, I'd rather Microsoft gave a commitment to just 24 day one titles a year, taking the money from the 50 games they would have been paying to put on the service towards bigger and better titles. After all, most of us struggle to finish two reasonably sized games a month as is, so having just two would probably be fine. I know you could probably whip through 6 games a month if they can all be done and dusted inside a day or two, which is probably the case with many that we will be getting, but I think you will probably have to accept they will be of lesser quality with that too...

2
Chip-Douglas
Tue 9th Dec 2025

I'll give digging a hole a go the mystery has me intrigued 🧐

3
AlwaysPlaying
Tue 9th Dec 2025

I reckon Xbox does a pretty good job at picking their “filler” games. I always find a handful to play and enjoy. Would I prefer all AAA games to be day 1? Of course but then I would only play AAA and miss out n some real gems

4
dkxcalibur
Tue 9th Dec 2025

I love Ultimate Chicken Horse so I will be downloading Ultimate Sheep Racoon immediately.

5
bert0503
Tue 9th Dec 2025

A Game About Digging a Hole seems interesting due to I have always wanted to do beach metal detecting where you can discover anything from old coins to lost or forgotten jewelry.

6
MALEBRIGNON
Tue 9th Dec 2025

More trash. Maybe it's because I've literally grown up with video games from Pong to Series X, but i don't want to look at graphics that would've been sub-par 20 years ago. Would much prefer less titles but of higher quality. Renewed to finish Outer Worlds 2 and now I'm outta stuff to play with my remaining 3 weeks. They bought all my favorite studios, so most of the AAA stuff on offer are things I've owned for quite some time. Bad year for games, I guess.

7
ThatFilbo
Wed 10th Dec 2025

This month is the first month since even Xbox Live was first launched that I've let my subscription lapse. This latest drop hasn't convinced me that I'm wrong.

I'm looking at the offering from Xbox, and instead of 'the greatest deal in gaming', all I see is a set of tiers that don't really serve me, and a bloated service stuffed with filler. I want day one releases - but I couldn't care less about Fortnite. I don't want the dog water Ubi+ sub, I'm not even that bothered about EA, to be honest. So, since the price increase, none of the tiers suits me.

Before I cancelled my sub, I had 50+ games installed on my Xbox - three of them were GamePass. Out of the last 42 GamePass releases, there were five that I thought were compelling, and I already owned two of them.

It's worth knowing that 'A Game About Digging A Hole' can be completed in under two hours, and once it's done, it's done. I have it on Steam, and my total playtime 119 minutes.

And, what the hell is a "soulslike deckbuilder"? That's just word soup.

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