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Game Pass drops four games today before September gets seriously crowded
The hard part with Game Pass today is not finding something to play. It is deciding where to start. Four games enter the September 16 lineup before Microsoft rapidly moves on to Ninja Gaiden 4, Dune: Awakening and Minecraft Dungeons II.
By Maëlle 
Microsoft has four Game Pass additions lined up for September 16: Marvel Cosmic Invasion, Planet of Lana II, Routine and Ultimate Sheep Raccoon. All four are being added to Game Pass Premium while remaining available through the other Game Pass tiers listed by Xbox.
They have very little in common beyond the date.
Routine goes dark while Planet of Lana II slows things down
Routine is a first-person science-fiction horror game set inside an abandoned lunar base shaped by an alternate 1980s vision of the future. Exploration and survival sit at the centre of the pitch, while the exact nature of its threats is deliberately left vague.
Planet of Lana II offers a much quieter kind of pressure. Lana and Mui continue their journey through a cinematic puzzle-platforming adventure built around environmental puzzles, exploration and the changing world of Novo.
Marvel brings the punches, Ultimate Sheep Raccoon brings bicycles
Marvel Cosmic Invasion is a beat 'em up built around a roster of 15 Marvel heroes fighting the Annihilation Wave across locations including New York and the Negative Zone.
Ultimate Sheep Raccoon is a multiplayer bike-racing party game where players help construct the course, then add traps and obstacles before trying to survive what they have created.
It is a strange four-game bundle. That works in its favour.
The next batch starts one day later
Kernel Hearts and Ninja Gaiden 4 follow on September 17. Kernel Hearts enters Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass as a day-one release, while Ninja Gaiden 4 expands into Premium.
Dune: Awakening and Well Dweller arrive on September 22, followed by Mad King Redemption on September 23. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 joins Premium on September 25, while Rematch expands to Essential that same day.
Minecraft Dungeons II and E-Day extend the wave into October
Minecraft Dungeons II launches into Ultimate and PC Game Pass on September 29. Keeper reaches Premium on October 2.
Gears of War: E-Day closes the announced run on October 6. Its campaign takes place fourteen years before the original Gears of War and follows Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago during the first Locust emergence.
The result is less a single September drop than a three-week conveyor belt running into early October.
Eight games leave at the end of September
Atomfall, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, Little Nightmares II Enhanced Edition, Little Rocket Lab, Sifu, SOPA: Tale of the Stolen Potato, Sworn and Terminull Brigade are scheduled to leave on September 30.
Today, though, the shortlist is simple: Routine, Planet of Lana II, Marvel Cosmic Invasion and Ultimate Sheep Raccoon.