Now this is a surprise. Microsoft had previously performed their Wednesday update to the Xbox Live Games Store this morning, adding EA Sports UFC for the Xbox One and Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack!!! for the Xbox 360. But about an hour ago, they added another Xbox One game: Red Barrels’ Outlast.
The first-person survival horror game was released for the PS4 in February after a successful PC launch last year. But up until the moment the game was added to the XBL Store, no one knew it was in development for the Xbox One. Another interesting question to ask in light of Outlast’s Xbox One launch is, “What does this mean for Microsoft’s famous “parity clause” for ID@Xbox titles?” Before today, the consolemaker wasn’t interested in your game if it was previously released for another console (though, case-by-case exceptions are possible). Either Outlast has qualified for one of those exceptions (Warp Zoned’s Mike Ryan loved it on the PS4) or Microsoft has begun to rethink the whole policy.
After the large number of amazing indie games showcased at this year’s E3 Expo, I’d say the latter would be a wise decision. But for now, I give you Outlast…
Outlast ($19.99)
In the remote mountains of Colorado, horrors wait inside Mount Massive Asylum. A long-abandoned home for the mentally ill, recently re-opened by the “research and charity” branch of the transnational Murkoff Corporation, the asylum has been operating in strict secrecy… until now. Acting on a tip from an anonymous source, independent journalist Miles Upshur breaks into the facility, and what he discovers walks a terrifying line between science and religion, nature and something else entirely. Once inside, his only hope of escape lies with the terrible truth at the heart of Mount Massive.
