Today Xbox announced in partnership with Summer Game Fest, the recreation of one aspect of gaming shows such as E3 and Gamescom, very early demos of upcoming games.
(Xbox.com)
We’ll have more than 60 brand-new game demos for upcoming, unreleased Xbox games available to check out for free! Look for the special Game Fest Demo tile on the Xbox One Dashboard that week to find the collection of available demos.
A few things to keep in mind:
- These are not normal “game demos.” Typically, the demos you see in our Demo channel are created after the game is completed (or nearly completed) and represent the final version. Many of these demos are early, and some are for games that won’t be out for quite some time. We’ve never done this before; what that means is that you’ll get to experience these games early – some way early – which is awesome, but you should also note that these games will continue to evolve and be polished as they near release. In other words, think of these as akin to “show floor demos” and not necessarily indicative of the final product. And speaking as somebody who has worked in the industry for a while – that’s not a bad thing! In fact, being able to check out games early and then see how they evolve is freakin’ awesome!
- These demos will only be up on the Xbox Dashboard for a week. Some might be re-published to the Demo channel later, but many will simply evaporate at the end of the week, so make sure to check them out while you can.
- The developers would love to hear what you think. Hit them up on social media or through their websites. If you like the game – tell them! If you have constructive criticism, they would love to hear that too.
As I mentioned, we’ll have a lot of games – somewhere between 75 and 100 when the dust settles. We’ll announce the full list closer to July 21
Announced so far:
- Welcome to Elk:
- Raji: An Ancient Epic
- The Vale: Shadow of the Crown:
- Skatebird
- Hellpoint
- Haven
- Destroy All Humans!
- Cris Tales
There’s no mention regarding whether these demos will be going through certification need by Microsoft to be published on the platform. Those who have been to industry shows know these demos if played early enough are running on development kit hardware or PC’s. Once more games are listed Xbox will likely put out some disclaimer for them.
