The January 25 Xbox Game Pass update is adding a new day-one title in the form of Go Mecha Ball. This hectic indie release promises to add to the already sizable collection of high-quality roguelike games on Xbox Game Pass.
06.01.2024 - 13:05 / videogameschronicle.com / Matt Booty / Xbox Game / Will
Microsoft is planning to bring one of its “more acclaimed” first-party games to competing platforms this year, it’s claimed.
That’s according to the Nate the Hate podcast, a show which often breaks stories involving the games industry.
The show did not name which title is allegedly coming to competing platforms, but noted that it was “in the game of the year conversation” in the year that it was released.
“In the calendar year of 2024, Microsoft will bring one of their more acclaimed first-party games to a competitor’s system,” the show claimed.
“The title I’m referring to was met with high critical acclaim. Fans loved it and it was in the game of the year conversation in the year that it released.”
‘Nate’ added: “When the announcement comes I think it will be met with a lot of excitement because it’s a quality game.
“I think this is a smart move for Microsoft… from a business perspective, if you’re bringing select games to multiplatform, to Switch and PlayStation, you’re doing so because you see the quality of the IP and the franchise and you want to expand its reach beyond just the Xbox.”
Some fans on social media have speculated that the unnamed title could be Tango Gameworks‘ Hi-Fi Rush, the action game that was shadowdropped this time last year, and which received strong critical praise.
Microsoft has dabbled in multiplatform releases in the recent past, including ports of the Ori games for Nintendo Switch, and continued support for Minecraft on PlayStation and other platforms.
It also honoured multiplatform agreements for Bethesda titles Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo, and Double Fine’s Psychonauts 2. However, some games, most notably Starfield, were made exclusive to Xbox consoles after Microsoft acquired their developers.
Speaking in 2019, Xbox’s then first-party studios boss, Matt Booty, said the platform holder would determine if it made sense to put future games on PlayStation and Nintendo Switch on a per-franchise basis.
“I think that the question is less binary about, ‘should it be on Switch, should it be on PlayStation?’ and more, ‘does it make sense for the franchise?’” he said.
“In other words, is it a kind of game where it would benefit from the network effect of being on a bunch of different platforms, or is it a game where we can best support it by putting resources and making sure that our platforms, things like xCloud and Game Pass and Xbox Live, are really leaning in to support the game?”
The January 25 Xbox Game Pass update is adding a new day-one title in the form of Go Mecha Ball. This hectic indie release promises to add to the already sizable collection of high-quality roguelike games on Xbox Game Pass.
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Xbox Game Pass has been busy this week, adding two new games on January 16, revealing new games coming later this month and in February, and also confirming a new day-one Xbox Game Pass title for some time this year: Frostpunk 2. This highly anticipated sequel follows the original apocalyptic survival city-builder game and asks a dangerous question in a frozen wasteland: what's next? The biggest external threats are gone, and only internal ones remain.
The Xbox Game Pass additions keep rolling in with the new year, with January 16 seeing Resident Evil 2 and Those Who Remain join Microsoft's subscription service, and even more is on the horizon. Alongside their additions, Microsoft took the time to confirm the next five games coming to Xbox Game Pass in January, as well as the two coming in February.