“Play the betas, save the world.” It doesn’t have as nice a ring to it as that nonsense Heroes made famous talking about a cheerleader, but it’s true. Testing games before they’re available is a public service. This week, Microsoft’s Xbox One entertainment console has two different betas going according to reports, Fable Legends & Gigantic. If you’re in those betas, let the testing begin.
VG247 reports that Gigantic, the battle arena game that Microsoft announced earlier this year and has shown off at every trade show since, is beginning its private beta on Xbox One today. Fable Legends also begins its closed beta this weekend, according to Segment Next. Both games began accepting beta invites earlier this year, and both are perfect showcases for technology included in both the Xbox One and Windows 10.
Using Xbox Live, both games allow users to tea up against each other, regardless of whether they are on a PC running Windows 10 or an Xbox One. Microsoft spent much of the summer laying the foundation for this by adding effortless Xbox One Wireless Controller support into Windows 10 along with Party Chat and other profile management tools. If these first games are successful we could see the rebirth of Xbox Live as a service tied to different kinds of hardware, similar to the way Facebook is available regardless of device.
To participate in either beta you’ll need Xbox Live and entry into both betas regardless of whether you’re on Xbox One or PC.