Surviving Mars is free to play for Xbox Live Gold members this weekend. Start building your first colony on the Red Planet starting at 12:01 a.m. PDT on Thursday, May 16 through 11:59 p.m. PDT on Sunday, May 19.

For new recruits, Surviving Mars is a survival management game where players must build a colony capable of supporting human life on Mars. Easier said than done considering the Martian atmosphere is hostile to humans and kills anyone directly exposed to it.

Since Surviving Mars launched on Xbox One in March of last year, the game has had 12 major updates, each one adding new features or improving mechanics based on our players feedback. One recent update was the addition of Paradox Mods, the first direct modding pipeline on Xbox One, which gave players the power to create their own custom experience in Surviving Mars. That’s right, players can mod Surviving Mars on Xbox One during the free weekend.

If you want to experience more Surviving Mars, check out the two expansions: Space Race, where players compete with rival colonies for the limited resources on Mars, and Green Planet, which just launched today, introduces terraforming parameters and allows players to turn the Red Planet green.

In short, if you’re looking for a game that puts your management skills to the test, look no further than Surviving Mars!

Buy Surviving Mars now and save 67% – limited time offer

For more Xbox news & rumors and an always updated list of new games coming to Xbox One this year and beyond, follow @XONEHQ on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, download the free XBOXONE-HQ.COM app for Android and until next time, game on!