Xbox is working on bringing curated demos of upcoming video games to Xbox Game Pass, the company officially announced. This new initiative, called Project Moorcroft, is described by the company as “a program that brings the fun and discovery of playing new, curated demos of upcoming games to our Xbox Game Pass members.” The announcement also comes as PlayStation’s new PlayStation Plus service begins to offer timed demos for certain video games.
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Xbox’s Project Moorcroft is relatively light on details at the moment by comparison, but Xbox has confirmed that it intends to begin rolling it out within the next year with a focus on indie games. Exactly when that might first start and what developers or video games might be involved is unclear at the moment, but it does seem to have a slightly more narrow focus at its start than the similar offering from PlayStation.
According to a presentation shown to the press by Xbox, the whole intention of Project Moorcroft is to replicate a bit of the experience of wandering the show floor at an event like PAX or E3 and getting to check out an early look at a number of different video games. Sarah Bond, Xbox corporate vice president, game creator experience and ecosystem, said as part of the presentation that the opportunities for this sort of thing is getting smaller and more difficult to replicate, especially for smaller developers.
But Bond also acknowledged that creating demos is not exactly easy or cheap. It’s work, and it takes time, and that takes money. Xbox, through the structure of Project Moorcroft, will actually pay developers to make demos. “Participating developers will be able to see how their demos perform, and be compensated, enabling them to bring their creativity to Xbox and reach new audiences with Game Pass,” the official announcement from Xbox this morning reads in part.
As noted above, Project Moorcroft is expected to officially start at some point within the next year for Xbox Game Pass members. Theย Xbox Game Passย subscription service comes in several tiers, but the basic version is available for $9.99 a month. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate runs a little more expensive at $14.99 a month. You can check outย all of our previous coverage of Xbox Game Pass right here.
What do you think about Xbox Game Pass members getting the ability to play curated game demos? Are you looking forward to learning more about Project Moorcroft in the near future? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop in order to talk about all things gaming!
