Microsoft has confirmed Games With Gold titles on newer Xbox consoles are tied to subscriptions, clearing up confusion on the freebies.

The news that Games With Gold titles on newer Xbox consoles are tied to subscriptions was confirmed by Xbox Engineering lead Eden Marie, who cleared up the confusion.

“FYI, since I’ve seen confusion: Xbox One & Series X|S games claimed as Games with Gold are yours to play only while your Gold or Game Pass Ultimate subscription is active,” Marie said on Twitter. “360/OG games are yours to keep, even after your subscription ends. This has always been the case.”

In essence this means newer games on Games With Gold are tied to your subscription, just like Sony’s PlayStation Plus and Nintendo’s Nintendo Switch Online subscriptions.

Marie then went on to explain how getting full ownership of digital games via Games With Gold is a “quirk of Games with Gold originating on Xbox 360,” and didn’t originally support subscriptions as the service predates them. Further, the original Xbox 360 free games don’t support subscription-based licenses.

While Games With Gold titles on newer Xbox consoles are tied to subscriptions, Marie notes “Games with Gold continues to accrue value for folks who still play on Xbox 360″ because you get to keep them forever.

The Xbox engineering lead then made a quip that “360/OG Games with Gold show up in the all owned games section” of your games & apps in Xbox One and Series X|S, not the Games with Gold  section – joking that Microsoft’s “inability to tell the difference works to your benefit!”

Lastly, while Games With Gold titles on newer Xbox consoles are tied to subscriptions, the remaining question is if OG/360 games redeemed on Xbox One or Series X|S are yours to keep forever, to which Marie confirms that is the case.

The most recent batch of Xbox Games with Gold titles were just recently made available – read more about them here in our previous report.