Quantum Break is Leaving Xbox Game Pass Soon - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 April 2023 / 3,489 Views
Remedy Entertainment's Quantum Break, which launched as an Xbox One console exclusive in April 2016, appears to be leaving Xbox Game Pass soon.
The game has appeared in the "Leaving Soon" section on the Xbox Game Pass app on Xbox consoles. It isn't known the reason for the game leaving service as it is published by Xbox Game Studios and games published by Xbox are not known for leaving the service.
Remedy in 2018 in an interview with GamesIndustry did state that Microsoft owns the Quantum Break IP, so it isn't known as to why the game is leaving Xbox Game Pass soon.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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I've seen theory that revolves around music license agreement and other.
I'm thinking MS may own the IP for quantum break but only under contractual agreement using a type of agreement that's more common in the movie/show industry. Some time an independent have good idea/script/book but can't develop a show or movie on it's own so sell the right to these to a bigger player while retaining a cut on their work and future one. This form of deal often require the acquiring party to pursue development of the franchise with new movie or seasons so as the original author continue profit on their cut and if development stops, rights over the ips will eventually return to the original authors.
Maybe the Quantum Break ip was under a similar deal and so would require MS to cede the IPs if they did not continue the development of the franchise within a certain timeframe and the specific nature of this game kind of make this a touch more plausible.
That is, if this isn't some kind of simple listing error.
It likely is a license related issue. Alan Wake's American Nightmare left Gamepass last year despite also being a Microsoft published game. That's another remedy title.
The other notable one is also older Forza titles that tend to drop off the service after roughly 4 years, again for licensing reasons.
Yes but the Alan Wake trademark was never owned by MS it was only subject to contractual publishing agreement with Xbox Games Studios. With Quantum Break MS is the owner of the IP that's why I'm suggesting there maybe was a contractual agreement which would force MS to cede back the IP.
I actually got caught by that... I bought Forza Horizon 4 just before the three year mark, expecting it to leave the service, only to have Microsoft announce weeks later that it wasn't leaving after all. I'm not sure what is different about FH4 over 1, 2, and 3 though. Maybe with FH5 they reached out to the same car companies and music studios and included a re-up of the content from FH4?
The November 10th, 2020 release notes for Forza Horizon 4 suggest to me that it's a back-compat+ title, that there was a free update to the game that unlocked better performance on Xbox Series consoles, rather than a ground-up port running Xbox Series code.
But yes, everything runs better on a Series X, and most things run better on a Series S than even a One X, so that all makes sense. :)
Yeah, it was worth releasing one every year under the old "sell the game" model. But under the "keep everyone subscribed to Game Pass" model you don't need to release them as often, so long as post-release support is strong. They do still sell it to people who aren't on Game Pass, but there's nonetheless not as much incentive for annual instalments anymore. Good point.
That said, I think it would be possible to go back to the annual model once they're fully retooled for the current-gen systems. I think it was the transition to Xbox Series that messed up their release cadence. The transition from 360 to Xbox One meant two SKUs. This time the transition included 6 targets (One VCR, One S, One X, Series S, Series X, and PC), so it was dramatically more complex. Once they're down to 3 (Series S, Series X, and PC) they might be able to manage annual releases again. But they may not choose to do so. It'll be interesting to see what happens, actually.
MS has commented and said it is a "licensing issue." They are working on getting it back on Game Pass as soon as possible.
That is odd. I though MS had all the rights and this would be "forever" in GP as other 1st party titles.
That's odd indeed, they do have the right to the Ips and I cannot see any incentive for MS to remove a game they won't be able to monetize in another way or at least not something worth ditching years long precedent over.
Occam's razor tell me we likely have to look at the contractual obligation MS signed to have those rights to begin with and unfortunately we don't have access to those. Lifeboat Productions may have injected conditions upon some of those Ips that MS cannot sustain anymore or have simply run their course. Remedy could also have included provision but as this is not common in the gaming industry but rather common in the Movie/tv shows' industry, it seems more likely that this as to do with the show part of the Game (Lifeboat Productions).
Remedy isn't 1st party.
I know it isn't, but the IP either belongs to MS or have some type of permanent exclusivity deal, so I was assuming it would be on the service "forever".
MS just confirmed its due to a licensing issue and they're working to have it back on GP. There is a TV show intertwined with the game, so I wonder if that's where the licensing issues are happening.
That is good. And would match the reason Forza games left, music licensing is always a bother (probably why the addition of classic games on PS+ is also very slow).
Is this game good ? Somebody offered it to me on Steam, haven't played yet
It's actually really good! You can see how the game influenced Remedy to make Control afterwards. It does get unusual for a game considering there's also a TV show built around the game lol, but still worth playing!
Oh great, I loved Control (and also Max Payne 1 and 2), so I'll try it, thanks
it could be a licence issue over the tv show part of it..
I never played this game?? Is it any good? it must be cheap gamepass or no gamepass.
Great imo. The game + tv show idea was pretty cool, though it ended up being too expensive, and the sales were lackluster, which is why Xbox never greenlit a sequel. But the game itself is great imo, both the story and the gameplay, which in many ways felt like a predecessor to Remedy's Control in terms of gameplay.
I really enjoyed my time with Quantum Break. I haven't completed it yet, so I should dive back into it!
Excellent actually. I enjoyed it much more than Control.
Ignore those praising this game.
Wasn't good originally and no way near holds up now. It has really good special effects of time fracturing, but it has weak repetitive combat that's worse that Control, puzzles that never satisfy, and a mediocre story.
Of all those crucial fundamentals above, not one was good.
Not bad by any means, but bland and boring.
Your opinion is it's bland and boring. Others disagree. What makes your input superior?
