One of the big announcements from Microsoft’s E3 press conference was the Xbox Play Anywhere scheme, and Microsoft have now confirmed that the promotion will come into effect on September 13th, alongside the launch of ReCore.
Similar to Sony’s Cross-Buy and Cross-Play, Xbox Play Anywhere lets you buy marked games once from the newly unified Windows Store and gain access to it on both Xbox One and Windows 10 PC. It then shares a save file, tracks a single list of achievements, and will have cross-platform multiplayer, where it makes sense to. This also applies to DLC purchases.
In order to take advantage of this, you will need to have installed the Anniversary Update for Windows 10 on your PC and the summer update on your Xbox One.
They have also confirmed that all games being published by Microsoft will be a part of Xbox Play Anywhere, from major first party games like Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3 and Halo Wars 2 to smaller indie games, such as State of Decay 2, Cuphead and We Happy Few.
You can extrapolate what this means for the likes of Halo 6…
Kennykazey
I’m definitely interested in trying this out, particularly with a game like Sea of Thieves which could seriously benefit from cross-play.
But it’s making me wonder if I should bother with the Scorpio, or just upgrade my PC. There’s also the question of how good the PC ports will be.
Eldave0
To each their own but, assuming the PC ports are well optimised, I’m struggling to think of a reason to buy an Xbox One.
With Sony and Microsoft both seemingly going down the route of “upgrade your hardware every 2-3 years for the best experience” you may as well just get a PC – particularly when you consider how much cheaper PC games are over console.
Avenger
How much cheaper will the Play Anywhere games cost though?
I’d hazard a guess they will be as expensive as current games are on the digital store. With no apparent physical copies to lean on for better prices, I can’t see much traction gaining personally. Plus it’s easy to go through a list of pros when it comes to console hardware, it still has a place for many people.
Kennykazey
As Avenger said, don’t expect these Xbox titles to be any cheaper on PC.
And a good PC is at least twice the cost of a console.
But yeah, I’m concidering just upgrading my graphics card next year, instead of buying a Scorpio. Thankfully I’ve got over a year to decide.