A few weeks ago, Microsoft accidentally made a game available for free through its store, and the company is now walking that offer back. According to Neowin’s reporting, Microsoft has begun revoking free copies of the game from players’ libraries, meaning accounts that picked it up at no cost may soon lose access to it entirely.
The title in question is Grim Trials, a roguelike action game. Rather than treating the giveaway as a genuine promotion, Microsoft appears to have corrected what it considers a listing error, pulling the game back from anyone who added it to their account during the window it was posted at zero.
What exactly happened
Microsoft’s store periodically runs promotions where it hands out games for free, and these are usually planned marketing pushes. In this case, the company says the free listing was a mistake rather than an intentional giveaway. The game was made available at no charge, users claimed it, and then Microsoft decided the offer should never have existed.
The practical upshot is that licenses granted during that window are being pulled. If you added Grim Trials to your account while it was listed as free, that entitlement may no longer be honored, and the game can disappear from your library.
Microsoft has not publicly spelled out the root cause of the pricing error, so the exact trigger — a misconfigured sale, a catalog mistake, or a promotional script firing incorrectly — remains unconfirmed. What is clear is that the company is treating the situation as a correction rather than a gift.
How the revocation affects your library
For most people, the visible symptom is simple: a game you previously saw in your collection is no longer there. On Xbox and PC through the Microsoft Store, entitlements are tied to your account rather than stored locally, so once Microsoft revokes the license, the title drops off your list and can no longer be launched or reinstalled.
This is different from a game that goes paid-to-free permanently. When Microsoft runs a real free promotion, the license is permanent and stays in your library forever. In this instance, the company is effectively reversing the transaction, which is a less common and more frustrating scenario for players who already added the game.
There is also a broader concern here about how we think about “owning” digital games. When you claim a free copy, you reasonably assume it is yours. A revocation reminds users that digital entitlements can be altered by the publisher after the fact, which is worth keeping in mind for any future free offers.
Background on Microsoft’s free game promotions
Microsoft has a long history of giving away games through the Microsoft Store and Xbox, often rotating weekly free titles to drive engagement with its platform. These promotions are typically well-publicized and the licenses are permanent, so players have come to expect that a claimed free game stays with them.
Errors do happen, though. Store listings occasionally go wrong due to pricing mistakes, region mismatches, or catalog issues, and publishers have to decide how to respond. The usual approach when a promotion is legitimate is to honor it even if it costs the company money. Here, Microsoft has chosen to revoke instead, signaling it views the listing as an accident rather than a real offer.
What to do if you currently own the game
If Grim Trials still shows up in your library, the safest move is to download and install it now while you still have access. Once a license is revoked, there is generally no way to force it back, so having a local copy on hand is your best insurance.
You can also check the purchase and library history in your Microsoft account to confirm whether the entitlement was registered as a free claim. If the game vanishes entirely, you can reach out to Microsoft Support to ask why the license was removed and whether there is any path to restoring it, though there is no guarantee of a reversal.
It is also worth watching the official Microsoft Store pages and any follow-up announcements, since the company sometimes clarifies these situations or extends affected users a replacement offer.
What this means for you
The headline takeaway is a cautionary one: treat a “free” game from any store as potentially temporary until you have actually installed it. Even when an offer looks permanent, listing errors can lead to revocations, and once that happens the decision is made on the publisher’s side, not yours.
For everyday Windows and Xbox players, the best defense is simple habit. When you claim something free, install it immediately, and keep a record of the claim. That way, if a mistake like this one catches your game, you still have a working copy to fall back on.
Source: Neowin
Over to you: If you grabbed Grim Trials while it was free, are you hoping Microsoft restores access, or do you accept the revocation?
