Earlier today out of pure curiosity I emailed the PR at Fatshark and asked them if Warhammer 40k: Darktide’s November 30th, PC release on Steam meant it was also coming to PC Game Pass at the same time. They responded :
you can play it on PC GP on release, so on you can make use of that Ultimate subscription.
Fatshark PR Rep
This is the first confirmation I’ve found that while the game is delayed to a “shortly after PC” date on console it IS coming to Game Pass on November 30th.
Xbox.com describes the game as:
From the developers of the best-selling and award-winning franchise Vermintide, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is a visceral 4-player co-op action game set in the hive city of Tertium. Fight together with your friends against hordes of enemies in this new Warhammer 40,000 experience.
Xbox.com Product Page
Below is the announcement trailer. See you out there on the 30th PC players!
Is Xbox getting a beta though? Has that been announced/confirmed? I would think that they will just release the Xbox version once they feel it’s ready.
That makes me sad because I always expect Xbox games to hit day and date with PC. We are seeing more and more titles where PC hits first with an indeterminate Xbox console release date. See: something like Age of Empires 4. All platforms should be treated equally especially since in many cases consoles bring MS more money( license fees, Xbox Live Gold).
Hmm, no beta has been announced as far as I know. Definitely possible it just drops on Game Pass when it’s ready for them.
Initially that was the plan too, for both of them to release day and date. But something must have happened. Would be nice if they announce a concrete date this or next month.
Sure but I was certain Age of Empires was first party. I get 3rd parties may not follow the idea but it’d be fantastic if they all did. We don’t want any platform looking like it isn’t as important.
It’s about the realities of development. Fatshark isn’t a huge studio and they were clearly struggling to finish the game as it is, as evidenced by the multiple delays. I imagine they are all hands on deck for the PC launch (where the majority of their player base is, from Vermintide 1 and 2) and they just don’t have the resources to finalise the Xbox version at the same time. It’s a shame but it is what it is.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker is another example of a game that came to PC and then a few months later came to consoles. In some ways, having a staggered launch creates multiple marketing moments and the positive word of mouth from the PC launch will benefit the console launch.
Age of Empires (and Gears Tactics) is a different situation. Strategy is a PC-focused genre and notoriously difficult to get right on consoles, especially when there is a level of depth and complexity to the controls. Halo Wars had to be designed from the very beginning to work on consoles and PC, whereas AoE needed to be designed for PC first to make sure it gets the fundamentals right. The entire AoE fanbase is on PC and they had to focus on making them happy first and foremost. We knew they would get around to console eventually, but World’s Edge and Relic and the other studios they work with are already very busy. They are supporting 2, 3 and 4 while also making Age of Mythology: Retold, and when you add console ports of 2 and 4, you can see why it would take such a long time.
And before people say it, requiring mouse and keyboard on console is NOT a satisfactory outcome. Plenty of people, myself included, will not play a game on mouse and keyboard, especially on console, so they have to make it play well on controller and give people options.
I’m not expecting Ara: History Untold to come to Xbox at all, so we’re lucky to be getting AoE, Darktide etc. even if they are delayed.
Just a heads up…Darktide’s pre-order beta is available now on PC and I was just watching Cohh Carnage playing the game and damn, this shit seems really good. Like the intro, combat seems visceral and on target. World and visuals look good. Best of all, while you will have three AI companions with you, you can play the game fully solo if you so choose which is great for me. I would prefer no AI companions but as long as I can play solo, im happy. Hopefully, we’ll get a release date soon for Series X/S.
The world looks amazing! And I thought (think) Vermintide 2 looks great!
I know PC can do “true solo” runs, but I never figured out if I could on Xbox. I don’t think I’d want to. My aim with controllers is not pin point enough for the perfect headshots need to break point elites and specials hiding on the other side of a mob. So, I had fun leveling my bots and working to build them for that.
I played Vermintide solo A LOT. But when I actually wanted to progress to the higher difficulty for the better equipment, I play with my kid and his friends. They are much better at aiming with controllers. I have fun providing support and hoard clearance. I actualy like the melee in these games a lot!
My fingers are crossed that I can use my elite controller to map jump, dodge, and slide to different inputs, though.
Does anyone know if I play this on PC Gamepass if the saves and all would carry to the console game when I pre-order again?
I don’t know how any of my laptops would run it, but at a minimum I was thinking to build out my characters so they’d be ready once the console version is released.
