Microsoft has confirmed that its own first party games will eventually come to the Xbox Game Preview program.
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Hardware and software game-related revenue has been declining Japan, as last year’s numbers were the lowest in the past 24 years, and Xbox One is at the bottom of the gaming console list. Loftis said as much, adding that this will be one way to “extend the beta experience and also support development a little in the process”.
Titles now available on via Xbox Game Preview include The Long Dark, Elite: risky and Sheltered.
Currently, Game Preview only houses games from indie developers. Despite this, Microsoft doesn’t seem to have given up, and will have two separate Xbox One events in the country as they aim to turn around their fortunes. “Our fans absolutely love it, there’s been a huge amount of uptake in the service itself”. As Loftis explains, from the studio’s side of things, the preview build has to be devoid of crashes and unfinished code, and has to be in a state that allows the player to finish it. Early Access players, meanwhile, need to understand that many aspects of the game will be unfinished, including gameplay.
“We are curating that program very much with an eye for making sure that the games are high-quality games”. Though, the internal storage gets filled very quickly if you’re an avid game and install a few heavy duty games. We have first-party publishing, which is something I’m responsible for, and that’s a very tight partnership where we typically have as many Microsoft people on the title by the end of the game as the developer does.
“This exciting new collaboration with Microsoft Xbox is an important milestone for Seagate that will help us to reach a new audience, which has an insatiable appetite for storage”, Seagate director of product marketing Jeff Fochtman said. “So one of those paths might be the right path for a Game Preview partner”.
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This post originally appeared on Kotaku UK, bringing you original reporting, game culture and humour with a U from the British isles.
