Xbox Announces Killer Queen Black, Outer Wilds, and Blazing Chrome for Day One Release on Game Pass

Microsoft just premiered the first episode of ID@Xbox Game Pass, a show to give fans a closer look at its ID@Xbox indie games initiative. As part of the show, Microsoft revealed the first three indie titles coming to Xbox Game Pass the same day as they release.

The three games are Killer Queen Black, Outer Wilds, and Blazing Chrome. In addition, ID@Xbox Game Pass showcased After Party, which will also be coming to the service on launch day, along with Void Bastards, Operencia: The Stolen Sun, Supermarket Shriek, and The Good Life.

Killer Queen Black is Liquid Bit's multiplayer action platformer which supports up to eight players. It's a popular multiplayer game that's even available on arcade cabinets at certain locations. Outer Wilds from Mobius and Annapurna Interactive is an exploration game about camping in space, while Blazing Chrome from JoyMasher and The Arcade Crew is a throwback, co-op arcade shooter similar to Contra.

With ID@Xbox Game Pass Microsoft is combining two big initiatives: indie games and its subscription service. Microsoft previously made it so first-party, triple-A Xbox games launch the same day on Game Pass as retail, but it looks like the company is making an effort to court smaller indie games onto the service as well for simultaneous launch.

This will help in the face of growing competition like the recently announced Apple Arcade, which seems to be working with small, but well-established developers to create exclusive games for its upcoming subscription platform. Developers for Apple already include WayForward and Hironobu Sakaguchi.

Either way, it looks like Microsoft has some competition in the subscription games model, and it'll take more than just first-party titles to get customers interested. We expect to learn more about the games ID@Xbox is bringing to Game Pass at PAX East.