Avowed is the latest game to offer early access as part of a more expensive edition.
For $90/£90, the premium edition ofAvowedincludes a skin pack, a digital art book, and the game’s soundtrack. It also includes five days early access to the game, meaning premium edition players can start playing the game on February 13, as opposed to Jul 20, 2025.
Many games in recent years have offered early access as a paid perk for buying a more expensive edition of a game.Microsoft‘sStarfieldalso offered this and offered a premium edition upgrade which meant players who planned to play the game on Game Pass could pay a one-time fee to just receive the premium edition contents.
Avowed, developed byObsidian, will be released onXboxandPCon February 18. The game will be added to Game Pass one day one.
This week Microsoft said thatAvowed’s delay wasn’t the result of quality concerns with the game.
Announced in July 2020, Avowed is a first-person fantasy action RPG set in the world of Eora, which was originally introduced in Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity series.
Game director PatelCarrie Patelhas said Avowedwill be similar in length to The Outer Worldsand that it hasover 10 different endings.
In an interview this week, Xbox bossPhil Spencerexpressed his dislike of “manipulative” expansionsthat don’t offer players “a unique point of view”.
In a separateBloomberginterview published this week, the executive saidXbox is still open to more acquisitionsfollowing last year’s $69 billion purchase ofActivision Blizzard.
He also said Xboxwouldn’t rule out any first-party game coming to PS5 or Switch, and thatXbox is working on handheld prototypes.
