As the month draws to a close, it's once again time to look forward to all the games coming to Xbox Game Pass in the coming weeks, and May 2023 has quite the line-up already slated. Xbox Game Pass has a total of six day-one games releasing in May 2023, and that's just what's been confirmed so far. And those six games are all set to provide wildly different gameplay experiences, from Amnesia: The Bunker's WW1 horror setting to Railway Empire 2's frontier entrepreneur venturing.
But while all of Xbox Game Pass' May 2023 games have completely different art styles, gameplay loops, and belong to different genres, there are two titles that share one similar feature. Both Redfall and Farworld Pioneers are co-op multiplayer games, and that's exactly what a service like Xbox Game Pass needs more of right now.
Redfall and Farworld Pioneers Should Set a Precedent for Co-Op Games On Xbox Game Pass
Announced back in Xbox's 2021 Games Showcase, Redfall is the long-awaited vampire co-op shooter from Arkane Austin, the same studio that created the 2017 Prey reboot. Despite controversies surrounding the game's always online requirement and its 30FPS restriction on Xbox Series X, Redfall looks like it's shaping up to be a fun co-op horror adventure, and its open world looks like the star of the show. Set in the titular seaside town of Redfall, this game will see players explore beachside resorts, suburban houses, churches, shopping centers, and a slew of other vampire-infested locations. Along the way, players will be able to craft unique weapons and invest in skill points that not only increase their own abilities, but assist the entire team.
A game that isn't nearly as well-known as Redfall, Farworld Pioneers is also heading to Xbox Game Pass in May 2023, and it's another co-op adventure that friends might want to keep their eye on. Farworld Pioneers is a 2D side-scrolling crafting survival game in a similar vein to the likes of Terraria, though its big hook is that it's set on a distant planet. Players will be able to build their own Sci-Fi base, upgrade it via crafting materials, and fill it with rescued survivors. Farworld Pioneers will also let players craft their own ships, granting them the ability to travel to new planets. And while Redfall only offers 4-player co-op, Farworld Pioneers allows for up to 32 players to join one server.
Redfall and Farworld Pioneers are two very different games. While Redfall is a horror/action FPS, Farworld Pioneers is a 2D crafting/survival game set in space. As far as gameplay goes, these two games could not be any more different from each other. But both are co-op games that boast highly ambitious open worlds, and that's exactly the type of game that Xbox Game Pass should be focusing on.
Xbox Game Pass is a service naturally made for the co-op genre. The biggest challenge a co-op game faces is trying to convince entire friend groups to drop the cash on it, as opposed to just one person. Xbox Game Pass eliminates a lot of that challenge, as many friend groups will already be subscribed to the service, making it much more likely that all of them will give the co-op game a go. If Redfall and Farworld Pioneers are both successful on Xbox Game Pass, then it should finally spur Xbox to put more large-scale co-op games on there in the future. At least one new co-op game on Game Pass a month would be nice.