Chris Charla, Senior Director of ID@Xbox, provides some details about the ID@Xbox Winter of Arcade.

More than a decade ago, the Xbox team introduced Xbox Live Summer of Arcade to showcase a series of incredibly independent games on Xbox 360 like Braid, Castle Crashers, LIMBO, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and more throughout the entire season. Summer of Arcade was an early precursor to the ID@Xbox program with a goal of introducing independent games and developers to Xbox players. ID@Xbox has been on an incredible ride ever since, as we’ve helped developers bring more than 1,000 independent titles to Xbox fans. Today, we’re excited to re-launch one of our favorite promos of the past with a new twist for ID@Xbox – Winter of Arcade!

To help celebrate the nine rad games we’re including in the program this year, fans will get a $5 gift card for each game they purchase through the Microsoft Store Online or Xbox, after the first one, up to a total of $40 if they buy all nine games! In addition to these great savings, we’re stoked to announce that ID@Xbox Winter of Arcade will also feature four super cool games that will or have launched day and date into Xbox Game Pass: Below, Ashen, Mutant Year Zero and Kingdom Two Crowns.

At Xbox, we strive to help our developers and players achieve more with services like Xbox Game Pass and programs like ID@Xbox Winter of Arcade. We’re excited to give fans the freedom to discover and play a rich and curated library of great games, while providing creators big and small another way to reach more players and expand their audiences.

Check out the featured titles below:

Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom – Available on Dec. 4, a legendary series returns with a grand new adventure! Enjoy a colorful action-adventure game made alongside Ryuichi Nishizawa, creator of the original Wonder Boy in Monster World series. Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom borrows the best from the classic series to deliver a fresh, modern adventure with fun gameplay, memorable music and gorgeous hand drawn animations. 

Mutant Year Zero (Xbox Game Pass, Xbox One X Enhanced) – Available on Dec. 4, tactical adventure game combining the turn-based combat of XCOM with story, exploration, stealth, and strategy. Take control of a team of Mutants navigating a post-human Earth. Created by a team including former HITMAN leads and the designer of PAYDAY.

Subnautica (Xbox One X Enhanced) – Available on Dec. 4, Subnautica is an underwater open world adventure game. Craft equipment, pilot submarines, and out-smart wildlife to explore lush coral reefs, volcanoes and cave systems.

Ashen (Xbox Game Pass, Xbox One X Enhanced) – Available starting Dec. 7, Ashen is an open world co-op action RPG about a wanderer in search of a place to call home. As you adventure through the realm of Ashen, you’ll occasionally encounter other players in a passive, co-operative multiplayer open world. It’s up to you to decide how to deal with them – fight together against evil, invite them into your party or simply ignore them.

Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek – Available on Dec. 7, Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek follows the tragic story of the Neighbor’s family in this dramatic prequel to Hello Neighbor. Experience playing a game of hide-and-seek with your brother as you both deal with a loss of a family member. The game explains events that lead up to the original Stealth Horror hit Hello Neighbor.

Kingdom Two Crowns (Xbox Game Pass) – Available on Dec. 11, in Kingdom Two Crowns, players must work in the brand-new solo or co-op campaign mode to build their kingdom and secure it from the threat of the Greed. Experience new technology, units, enemies, mounts, and secrets in the next evolution of the award-winning micro strategy franchise!

Desert Child – Available on Dec. 12, in Desert Child, you are a young and talented hoverbike racer who needs to figure out how you can scrape enough cash together through racing and odd jobs to punch your one-way ticket to the Red Planet to enter the biggest race in the universe, the Grand Prix.

Below (Xbox Game Pass, Xbox One X Enhanced) – Available starting Dec. 14, Below is a procedural terrarium filled with life, mystery and death. Test your adventurer mettle against The Isle’s procedural subterranean labyrinths. Explore a large, interconnected underworld crawling with cunning wildlife, deadly traps and stalked by a shadowy presence. Survive the perils of The Depths and unearth what lies below… or die trying.

Donut County – Available on Dec. 18, Donut County is a story-based physics puzzle game where you play as an ever-growing hole in the ground. Meet cute characters, steal their trash, and throw them in a hole!

The ID@Xbox Winter of Arcade promo runs in in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Canada from Dec. 4 to Dec. 21 at Microsoft Store Online and Xbox One, so pick up these new titles through ID@Xbox before the end of the event. For more information on ID@Xbox Winter of Arcade including all offer details and eligibility check out Xbox.com.

Stay tuned to Xbox Wire for more updates on awesome games coming from independent developers via ID@Xbox!