This week, Xbox boss Phil Spencer appeared in a charity stream from Extra Life, casually mentioning that Remedy Entertainments would gain control of Xbox Game Pass. Today, Remedy and Microsoft say this was a “false” statement, and there are “no plans” to transfer Control to Microsoft’s video game subscription service.
During the stream, Spencer mentioned that Control “did not reach enough people” and that he was “glad that it was recorded in Xbox Game Pass”. Developer Remedy Entertainment tweeted this morning to dispute Spencer’s statement, “The information reported in a recent mixer stream that Control is coming to Xbox Game Pass is wrong,” the developer said. “There are currently no news or announcements about Xbox Game Pass.”
Representatives of 505 Games and Microsoft have confirmed the information with Polygon.
“We are aware that Control has been added to the Xbox Game Pass library, and we can confirm that this is a mistake,” said a Microsoft spokesperson for Polygon. “While we are constantly updating the library and looking for new ways to add value and choice to our members in their games, we do not currently intend to bring Control to the library.”
Just yesterday, Microsoft announced a series of games coming into the Game Pass this month, including Halo: Reach, The Division by Tom Clancy, Pathologic 2, Overcooked 2, and Demon’s Tilt. Brand new games are released with Game Pass, but these are all older versions.
Control was released in August 2019 on a Windows PC through the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. If what Spencer said is true – that Control “does not reach enough people” – the sale of Christmas time will be important to the publisher. If Control comes to Game Pass in the future, it could slow down the sale on Xbox One, as people assume they can play it without buying it.
