Avowed’s Early Access Sets A Concerning Precedent For Xbox Game Pass

screenrant.com:

is set to launch on Game Pass day one, but its optional premium upgrade raises a potentially troubling issue for future releases. is the latest game from Obsidian Entertainment, an action RPG in the vein of set in the same world as the games. Like pretty much all games published by Xbox Game Studios, it's set to be released on both Xbox Series X/S and PC as part of the Game Pass service the day it comes out.

The game will be available in both a Standard and Premium Edition that comes with extra bonus content for a higher price tag — $70 USD for the Standard Edition, and $90 for the Premium Edition. For those playing on Game Pass, there's a Premium Edition upgrade available for $25 that offers the same bonus content as the standalone Premium Edition. Whether that bonus content justifies the price tag attached to it, however, is a matter of some debate.

According to the official product listing for on Xbox, the Premium Edition upgrade includes two sets of skins for the in-game companions, a digital artbook and soundtrack, and five days of early access before the game's full launch on February 18. All of that is content that will likely be worth buying, but there's one thing that's noticeably absent from the lineup — there's no meaningful gameplay content that's included in the Premium Edition of .

Avowed has taken a slightly different approach when it comes to pre-ordering, but how exactly does this work and what does it offer buyers?

The skins on offer are purely cosmetic, providing no gameplay alterations or modifiers; the artbook and soundtrack, while a nice bonus, are content that exists apart from the game entirely. The real selling point of the Premium Edition seems to be the five days of early access, allowing fans to dig into as early as February 13. While the promise of early access has become fairly standard in modern games, it's not something that can or should justify a higher price tag on its own, especially when other high-profile releases have gone