FBC: Firebreak is Remedy’s first crack at doing a multiplayer shootery thing, and after it was revealed at the latest Xbox Partner Preview, it’s been revealed that the game’s gonna be coming to PS Plus and Xbox Game Pass at the same time, day one.
Yep, fresh off of showing the gameplay from Alan Wake 2’s Lake House DLC that had be announced as coming to our eyeballs, Remedy clearly decided ‘hey, why not kill two birds with one stone, and then presumably do that Alan Wake dance?’
As noted by Game File’s Stephen Totilo following Firebreak’s reveal: “In what seems (to me) like an unusual move, the game will be available day one on Xbox Game Pass AND PS Plus’ Extra and Premium tiers – usually it’s one or the other. Perhaps some lessons learned here about launching a premium live service game and how to ensure an audience for it.”
Do you want a guess at which looks to be the only game to have done the same thing during the time Plus and Game Pass have been in their current guises/structures? It’s 2023’s Sea of Stars, which managed to do well sales-wise despite being free for users of both services right out of the gate.
As to what those folks will be getting, well FBC: Firebreak’s a “three-player cooperative first-person shooter set within a mysterious federal agency under assault by otherworldly forces”. It’s set in the Control universe, but is a spin-off, “not Control DLC and it’s definitely not a Control sequel”, thank you very much. You’ll
As for what it’ll be like to get to grips with, Remedy communications director Thomas Puha told Xbox Wire that it: “should be easy to get into and quickly understandable, not feel like a second job or that you have to spend an hour setting up your loadouts etc. before you get into a session”. “That’s not to say that FBC: Firebreak doesn’t have deep player progression and things to unlock,” he added, it does, but this isn’t about logging in every day for some loot or fear of missing out on materials.”
With the Firebreak crew it sounds like you’ll be joining being “cleared to carry ‘paranatural augments,’ which are Altered Items engineered into tool attachments” that serve like utlimate attacks but with funky Remedyish twists, here’s hoping the game can make both the hardcore Remedyheads and general shooter folks happy.
If you’re still playing catch-up on the Partner Preview, it’s also worth checking out the look at ship sailing in Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii, and the cinematic teaser for Subnautica 2, and Bloober thing Cronos: The New Dawn’s realistic/bloody chess.