Xbox Game Pass is the teaser for a new game coming
Microsoft's home service subscribers have had plenty of reasons to rejoice over the past few days, thanks in particular to the addition of many Bethesda games to Xbox Game Pass.Still, it seems the service team doesn't is still ready to slow down, with a recent teaser that has found space on the pages of the official Xbox Game Pass Twitter account. As you can see at the bottom of this news, on Friday 12 March, a new entry in the subscription catalog was suggested. The clues, as per tradition, have been rather vague, but the indications regarding a "mysterious signal" and an "anomaly" seem to be the central elements on which to build hypotheses.
In the immediate future, the community's hypotheses focused on a possible entry of Outriders on Xbox Game Pass. The People Can Fly title is out on April 1, 2021 and - if confirmed - it would in fact become part of Microsoft's offer from Day One. However, a further hypothesis makes its way among the fans, who turn the spotlight on the investigation activities of the "anomalies" at Mass Effect. Consistent in every chapter of the saga, could this aspect of gameplay be just what the Xbox Game Pass Tweet alludes to? With the arrival on the market of the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition next May, EA may have decided to propose Mass Effect: Andromeda in the service, absent from the collection.
At the moment this is obviously only a hypothesis: to find out more it will be necessary to wait for the announcement by the Xbox team!
Wait, Is ‘Outriders’ Launching On Xbox Game Pass?
Outriders
People Can FlyWhile the biggest Xbox Game Pass news of the week has been the arrival of 20 massive Bethesda titles after the Microsoft acquisition, there may be one more to add soon of some significance.
Game Pass has done this before, “leaking” a game coming to the service with a joke email, and now we have a new one from “Melissa McGamepass” which you can read below.
The most important line there is “Has anyone noticed a mysterious signal appearing in the distance lately or am I the anomaly in this situation?”
While yes, many sci-fi games have used both mysterious signals and anomalies in various plot points, there is one that uses both that is being released in…two weeks. Square Enix’s Outriders.
And some of the wording here is exact:
In addition to the mysterious signal mentioned there, the anomaly is the main focus of the entire game and the unstable storm on an alien planet that gives you your powers.
When it was first suggested to me that Outriders could be launching on Xbox Game Pass after this tease, I didn’t think that made much sense, considering you can already pre-purchase the game. But Microsoft has done things like this before, and it’s hard to rule anything out when it comes to their desire to make Game Pass attractive.
Square Enix’s last big deal was with PlayStation for Avengers, where that version of the game got a few bonuses and the promise of an exclusive Spider-Man hero still to come. But now for its other looter, it’s possible they went with Microsoft this time. The biggest looter on the market right now, Destiny 2, also did a deal with Microsoft to be on Game Pass with its new expansion, and it’s possible that was successful, so Microsoft pursued Outriders for this new deal.
It would just be a hell of a coincidence to see this phrasing dropped two weeks before Outriders arrives. One potential issue with this is that it could change minds about where people pick up the game, meaning their investment in the demo wouldn’t carry over because there’s no cross save. For instance I have four maxed characters and several legendaries on PlayStation, but if I wanted to switch over to Game Pass on Xbox, that wouldn’t carry over (demo progress saves for the final release of the game).
It’s possible that this is another sci-fi game that I can’t think of right now. Dead Space? I don’t know. But Outriders really does fit the bill based on what’s being teased here, and if there’s an official announcement, I would expect to hear it soon. Stay tuned for updates.
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