Phoenix Point is MIA on Xbox Game Pass

Phoenix Point, the latest strategy game from XCOM creator Julian Gollop, was released last week on the Epic Games Store. It was also supposed to be out on the Microsoft Store and Xbox Game Pass, but it’s not, and Snapshot Games have basically had to admit “we dropped the ball”.

In a statement released on the company’s official forums, A Snapshot staffer writes:

The fact is we dropped the ball. We were exceedingly busy getting the game itself ready, and being inexperienced with Game Pass and the Microsoft Store, we simply had not properly prepared the groundwork to get the game released on time on these platforms. Compared to other platforms we’re on these platforms require a number of pre-requisites, from Microsoft certification to legal documentation review. While these are now mostly complete, they have given rise to a number of new delays.

Specifically, we are currently unable to make the same content available on Microsoft’s platform that is available to players on other platforms. Since we want to make sure all players have access to all versions of Phoenix Point regardless of where they choose to play, we need to get this working before we can release.

They go on to say all this extra work “was not anticipated by us and has caused unexpected delay over and above our delay waiting for certification”, and that as a result “We do not have an ETA for Phoenix Point on Game Pass or the Windows Store yet”.

I’ve been playing the game for the last few weeks: it has some very cool ideas on the strategic side of things, but also some very frustrating loose ends.