New Xbox Game Pass Co-Op Game Was Just Shadow Dropped
Xbox Game Pass has added the new cooperative survival gameYoung Suns. The title was shadow-dropped on Game Pass on November 25 and comes from Goodbye Volcano High developer KO-OP, though it is currently available as a Game Preview, rather than a finished experience.
The term “Game Preview” is essentially Xbox’s way of saying “early access.” Previous notable Game Previews include Palworld, Little Witch in the Woods, and Grounded, all of which arrived on Microsoft’s games-on-demand platform ahead of their 1.0 launch. Perhaps the most significant and useful part of this Game Preview strategy is that it allows console players to engage in a title’s early access period—a relative rarity.
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Young Suns Shadow Drops on Xbox Game Pass
Young Suns takes place in Jupiter’s orbit, in the wake of a people’s revolution in the far future. The game won’t be focused on warfare or epic stand-offs, however: gameplay revolves around social-sim interactions with NPCs from different factions and other “cozy” staples like character and base customization. The player gets their own ship to personalize, and can gather valuable crafting materials and other resources from planetoids, which are explored via a traditional third-person perspective. A central objective is to restore various space stations in the planet’s orbit, a task facilitated by resources obtained on planetoids.
With Young Suns being an early access game, or Game Preview, as Game Pass calls it, KO-OP plans to continue expanding it with new content, characters, and regions to explore over time. Since it’s a cooperative multiplayer game that supports parties of up to four players, KO-OP hopes to nurture a community of dedicated Young Suns fans over the coming months and years, obtaining both the income and visibility needed for long-term success.
Currently, Young Suns is only available on Xbox and PC via Xbox Game Pass, although a Steam release is “coming soon,” according to KO-OP. Young Suns‘ reveal trailer also references “other platforms,” so it may land on PlayStation and Switch hardware someday.
As is often the case with early access games, it will be interesting to see how Young Suns develops. It seems that the early access model is especially popular in the survival scene, which has helped the likes of Palworld and Enshrouded find success. Young Suns is interesting by virtue of its optimistic, solarpunk vision of the future, and that, combined with well-tuned survival systems and character writing, could help it stand out in an increasingly crowded market.