Microsoft’s answer to Steam’s Early Access is coming to Windows 10. Xbox Game Preview will be available on Microsoft’s desktop OS beginning soon, staring with Rockfish’s Everspace later this year.
Game Preview gives players a chance to try games while they’re still cooking, as work-in-progress titles complete with warts. It’s not something everyone enjoys, but Steam has proven there’s a dedicated, core group of gamers who enjoy the option to jump in early, and the chance to help shape the game by providing feedback that could affect the direction of development.
Xbox Game Preview arrived on Xbox consoles last June, with a reveal at 2015’s E3 gaming conference. The launch of the feature on Windows 10 does even more to suggest the gap is closing between Microsoft’s Windows and Xbox worlds. Xbox got the ability to act as a developer kit earlier this year, for instance, and Windows devices can stream games from Xbox hardware as of last year.
While the launch of the Windows 10 version of Xbox Game Preview only includes Everspace in terms of named titles right now, Microsoft says there are plenty more games to follow later on.