ID@Xbox Game Pass impressions

Microsoft unveiled their new showcase series ID@Xbox Game Pass today. The showcase is heavily inspired by the Nintendo Direct streams that showcase independent game titles, nicknamed the “Nindies.” Similar to the “Nindies,” ID@Xbox Game Pass looks to showcase upcoming independent games that are coming to Xbox Game Pass on the same day they launch. The first episode of the show itself was pretty short, clocking in at just over 13 minutes and highlighting 8 games that are heading to Game Pass sometime this year. Some of the games that were shown off include Outer Wilds, Afterparty, Blazing Chrome, Killer Queen – Black, and others. While things could have gone better for the showcase, it wasn’t a terrible start for a new series that rightfully gives independent games their time to shine.

The biggest issue with the event was that it didn’t show off as many games as some would have hoped, which in turn made it a fairly brief showcase. On top of this, the format of the show was a little cheesy, with the hosts appearing somewhat corny and building up things that didn’t need to be built up, like saying that all the games shown were coming to Game Pass on day one. While it’s definitely good news to hear, it didn’t need to be announced in a “but wait, there’s more” kind of way. It would have also been nice to see some more of Tunic, the indie darling that had many people abuzz at E3 last year, but we also don’t know how far along the game is so maybe it just wasn’t ready to be shown off yet.

While some things about the showcase were a little underwhelming, there were a fair number of things that were exciting. There was a diverse portfolio of indie games that were shown and all of them look appealing. Afterparty, the latest game by Night School Studio, looks to be like it will be a fun game that will give a lot of laughs to gamers and hopefully more information about it’s release date will be revealed soon. Outer Wilds also seems to be a fairly intriguing space exploration game that seems to hold a good amount of promise to it as well.

ID@Xbox Game Pass seems like a promising new showcase for indie games on the Xbox platform and the fact that Xbox is giving more attention to indie games is great for developers and gamers alike. Hopefully the episodes will get longer and show off more games in future episodes, but all in all, it wasn’t a bad start for the new showcase.

What did you think of the ID@Xbox Game Pass showcase? What games are you looking forward to or wish you would have seen during the show? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to subscribe to BYOG for the latest and greatest in gaming.