23 New Xbox Play Anywhere Games Highlighted In Latest Monthly Roundup

Still some strange omissions, like early games such as Ryse and Sunset Overdrive, other games which remain Xbox exclusive console-wise and I'd like to play on max settings on PC.

@Lrapsody The PC version of Sunset Overdrive doesn't have the online feature or matchmaking. Single player game mode only.

Surely some of these game titles are typos and not "close enough knock offs", right?

My Friendly Neighborhood ---> Hello Neighbor
No Heroes Here ---> No More Heroes

Surely???

Although any new title added to play anywhere is welcome. It would be nice if they were to add older titles to the service. There are quiet a few titles which have a PC and Xbox version and making these Play Anywhere would be great.

Any PlayAnywhere title is welcome, but honestly, they are almost all minor games, while major titles generally skip this feature: Metal Gear Solid 3, Mafia The Old Country, Helldivers 2, Wukong....

I think Microsoft has a serious problem there, for some reason this feature is not attractive to major developers, and therefore, it doesn't end up being a particularly exciting feature for users.

The more the merrier. It'd be nice to see some older titles making the leap, I agree. I do wonder if we see a return to BC games (licence to the side) getting similar treatment over the years.

Really glad they're bringing high value games to this service..oh wait

@Gabrie couldn't agree more. Why would they target multiple systems to be paid once? Nice idea, doesn't work

1) Games like Eden's Zero that launch XPA with Cloud Gaming Support (stream your own library) is literally my holy grail. That's all I ever wanted. This needs to be every game.

2) Unfortunately, a lot of publishers, especially western publishers, want gamers to use their proprietary storefronts. They wouldn't support Steam if they didn't have to for sales. So there's the answer btw. Xbox Play Anywhere won't really hit mainstream until gamers show that it's worth it (that we buy more XPA games and spend more money in them). Which granted Xbox is pushing that narrative now and it does seem to be working with more XPA games than before. But it's still an issue.

3) All that said, it's actually massive that Hollow Knight Silksong (indie GTA according to other indie devs) and COD are both launching XPA. COD being first party and XPA is probably the best get for Xbox to train and market that program more.

@Kilamanjaro Lots of reasons
1) Not every game is GTA. Most people don't buy most games twice for full price. In this case realistically not much money is being lost.
2) Xbox is reporting, and people will comment and say, that gamers on Xbox are buying XPA games at a higher rate than non-XPA games. So going back to point one, if you're game isn't GTA and people aren't going to buy it twice, it's just purely profitable to utilize a program that leads to increased sales.
3) Most games, especially those like GTA, make the majority of their money through Microtransactions these days. Regardless of if you buy multiple copies of a game, you're only realistically going to play on one version at any given time and likely to only buy Microtransactions on that version. Xbox also reports higher player engagement & retention on Xbox Play Anywhere titles and for live service and Microtransactions heavy games those are both the two most important metrics. People playing your game more increases the spending they do in-game.
4) XPA isn't that difficult to develop for (Microsoft does a lot to make it really easy) and developers are already developing for many different types of hardware just on account of building games for PC. Plus as a benefit games get cross save features which just add value and means they don't have to set them up themselves (it seems like a small thing, but it isn't and not everyone wants to put in the money to maintain it like Ubisoft).
5) Larger communities (and again engagement is huge for games these days)

You know, Xbox Play Anywhere isn't even that big of a deal. It's no different from say buying a book and taking that book and reading it anywhere. Or like for gaming it's the same as buying a game on literally any PC storefront. In which case you can then access that game on no matter what PC hardware you use. It's even more similar with handheld PCs and the Steam Deck existing. We've just let console gaming create these walled gardens around every game we "own" and now we're used to that.

@WildConcept6 I've used Play Anywhere on a ROG Ally and have been really disappointed with the selection. The GTA reference is a bit odd because there's really not another game like it that drops a billion dollars in sales in 2-3 days. I like the concept but in reality there are hardly any worthwhile games or communities on Xbox Play Anywhere compared to the vast amount that aren't. Those are all fair points & I want it to work but we can see it's under utilized. I did take a look at the latest link above and can see there are a TON more games there than in 2023 so will have to go check it out next chance I get. Fair points,fair points

@Kilamanjaro what I've really noticed is that the big issue is with western publishers, specifically EA and Ubisoft and the likes, who want to push everyone to their own launcher (for data collection reasons and to make more money from sales). The types that wouldn't support steam if it wasn't so big. But it's been fantastic for me with indies and JRPGs. I have a legion go and it's been perfect for Metaphor, Persona, Yakuza, Octopath Traveler, Sea of Stars, and the likes. Those are also some of my favorite games so it works out fantastically.

Only mentioned GTA because I genuinely think that most non-GTAs can benefit from it, but it's a matter of making it known to gamers who then push for it. I'm hoping that the Xbox Full Screen mode does that. But I'm also hoping that the more prestigious titles in the program does that. Xbox now has secured both Hollow Knight Silksong and COD for XPA. First party in general now has a blockbuster output of guaranteed XPA games which also includes Bethesda and ABK.

@WildConcept6 yeah I filtered to games over $40 to see what big companies are there and aside down Microsoft, Square Enix has got to be the biggest supporter. I think Microsoft will eventually include this in contract renewals in the future to make it more prominent or they'll alter their hardware so it's considered a PC in Current contracts so ownership carries over. Interesting to see how they'll work it out, love the concept just think for the hundreds of games I own it's not a fully cleaned out feature by comparison

@Kilamanjaro and that's a very fair assessment. It was first announced e3 2016. Xbox needs to do a better job of pushing it. Thankfully we have seen a LOT of growth for the program in the past few years, but it's still too infrequent. Like I said I'm hopeful that the bigger titles coming (from first and third party) raise consumer interest (thus publisher) and the overall unification of the Xbox ecosystem helps bring games to the Xbox PC store and thus increases the number of games that want to do Xbox Play Anywhere. And with next gen looking more like a vision than a single console, with that AMD announcement, Microsoft could very well make it a requirement.

Same on your library, very fair. Game consoles are frustrating in that way with your library just kinda stuck. Back when Xbox was still selling movies & TV there wasn't even a question of every movie you bought also being on Windows. You know, you wonder if Microsoft did Xbox Play Anywhere at the start of the Xbox One generation would everyone have bought into it and their DRM push (which is now just everything)? Oh what ifs. All we can really hope for is that it steadily grows. And I'm curious if any video game console ever has a solution for what's become of our libraries with consoles being so walled. Or if we'll just have to keep waiting for the inevitable (either another xbox one/PS4 transition where compatibility is just lost or consoles themselves inevitably eventually dying out). It's a weird state tbh. Like how bad would movies & TV be if every DVD player manufacture had different versions of each DVD that you could only sometimes* use with their DVD players? Even digital stores let you use movie purchases across any device as long as the storefront is available. And then there's services like Movies Anywhere connecting storefronts. Meanwhile in gaming 😅...