Friday's ID@Xbox event delivered as promised, showing off dozens of indie games, a ton of new announcements, and new gameplay galore. It was a celebration of great upcoming indie games first, but it was also a showcase for Xbox. The gaming brand came out of the event with a list of over 20 different indie games that will be coming to Xbox Game Pass. Further, they're going to be released on Xbox Game Pass day and date of their official launch.
To clarify, a portion of the games now confirmed for day-one launches on Xbox Game Pass have been previously announced for the subscription service. They've just been upgraded to day-one launches as of today's ID@Xbox event. It's also confirmed that exactly 15 of the games are entirely new additions that haven't previously been announced.
Here are all 22 games coming to Xbox Game Pass, along with what platforms they'll be supported on:
- Art of the Rally (cloud, console)
- Astria Ascending (cloud, console)
- Backbone (cloud, console)
- Boyfriend Dungeon (console, PC)
- Craftopia (console, PC)
- Dead Static Drive (console, PC)
- Edge of Eternity (cloud, console)
- Hello Neighbor 2 (cloud, console)
- Library of Ruina (cloud, console)
- Little Witch in the Woods (cloud, console)
- Moonglow Bay (cloud, console)
- Narita Boy (cloud, console)
- Nobody Saves the World (cloud, console)
- Omno (cloud, console)
- Recompile (cloud, console, PC)
- Sable (console, PC)
- She Dreams Elsewhere (console, PC)
- STALKER 2 (cloud, console)
- The Ascent (cloud, console, PC)
- Undungeon (cloud, console, PC)
- Way to the Woods (cloud, console)
- Wild at Heart (console).
Past games that have been shown from that group include Boyfriend Dungeon, Hello Neighbor 2, Narita Boy, Little Witch in the Woods, Stalker 2, The Ascent, and Way to the Woods. Suffice to say, Xbox has been courting indie game developers for years now, but this may be the biggest wave of Xbox indie titles in a very long time.
One detail that's particularly interesting to consider is the lack of PC support for many of these games. In that same thought, games without PC support often have cloud support instead. Xbox could be working to encourage PC gamers to pick up Xbox Game Pass Ultimate rather than a standard PC subscription, which will eventually allow browser-based usage of Game Pass titles via the cloud.
Every single game shown today, on the other hand, will be available on Xbox Game Pass via console. It's unclear if that means they'll all support both Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, but it is clear that Xbox Game Pass on console is Microsoft's priority for its partnership. There isn't a single game on this list that'll be PC Game Pass exclusive.
Expect to hear more information about these 20+ games and their Xbox Game Pass availability as they each individual approach their release windows.