Wildgate Is Live on Game Pass Today — The Space Shooter Worth Trying

Xbox Game Pass picked up five new titles today, but the one worth paying the most attention to is Wildgate — a crew-based PvPvE space shooter from Dreamhaven that has been quietly building a fanbase since its launch earlier this year.

If you have ever wanted to captain a starship, board an enemy vessel mid-match, and fight your way through a procedurally-generated galaxy, this is exactly that game. And now it costs you nothing extra if you are already a Game Pass subscriber.

What Is Wildgate?

Wildgate drops you and a small crew into the Reach — a dangerous, ever-shifting region of space where up to 20 players compete as rival prospectors. Every match generates a new map, so no two runs feel the same.

The core loop mixes PvP and PvE: you are hunting loot, surviving AI-controlled threats, and clashing with rival crews — sometimes simultaneously. Think of it as a space-based extraction shooter with full starship combat layered on top of first-person action. It is a more focused, match-based experience than something like No Man's Sky, but that clarity works in its favor.

Three Modes, Three Flavors

Wildgate gives you three distinct ways to play, and they feel different enough to matter:

Artifact Brawl — Grab the Artifact and blast through the Wildgate before rival crews stop you. Chaotic, high-stakes, and great for quick sessions.
Fleet Battle — Two teams of up to 12 players each go all-out in ship-to-ship combat. Pure PvP, no loot distractions.
Treasure Hunt — A more strategic extraction mode. Five progressive zones ramp up difficulty the further you push. Resources get scarcer, enemies get tougher, and escaping with your haul feels genuinely satisfying.

The variety means you can adjust based on your mood and the friends you have online. A quick 15-minute Artifact Brawl hits very differently from a careful Treasure Hunt run.

Crew Roles Actually Matter

Not everyone on your crew does the same job. Wildgate has distinct prospector classes — pilots keep the ship moving and take the fight to other vessels, while boarders breach enemy ships for close-quarters combat. Coordinating roles and communicating is what separates clean wins from messy wipes.

The developers at Dreamhaven have been actively supporting the game post-launch. The most recent 1.5 update overhauled the co-op PvE mode significantly and rebuilt Treasure Hunt from scratch with the five-zone structure. There is already a solid amount of content to work through.

Should You Play It?

Wildgate launched at $29.99, which is a reasonable price for what it delivers. With Game Pass, that barrier disappears entirely. If you subscribe, there is genuinely no reason not to download it and give it a few sessions — you might find it becomes a regular rotation game.

The space PvPvE genre has not had a clean, well-executed entry in a while. Wildgate is not trying to be a massive open-world sandbox. It is a focused, match-based shooter with strong mechanics and real room for crew coordination. That focused design is refreshing.

Dreamhaven has committed to ongoing free content updates, so the game should keep growing throughout the year.

Everything Else Dropping on Game Pass Today

Wildgate shares the May 6 Game Pass spotlight with four other titles:

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers — A soulslike action RPG set in the dark final days of China's Ming Dynasty. Solid pick for FromSoftware fans.
Ben 10: Power Trip — Family-friendly action based on the classic cartoon.
Descenders Next — A mountain biking roguelite with procedurally generated downhill courses.
Wheel World — A laid-back cycling adventure with a distinctive lo-fi look.

Bigger releases — Mixtape (tomorrow), Subnautica 2, and Forza Horizon 6 — are still coming later in May. It is shaping up to be one of the strongest Game Pass months in recent memory. Today is a good place to start.