When will it be on PC?

Outriders is one of the most significant additions to Xbox Game Pass to date.

It’s not just a major game coming to the Netflix-for-games subscription service, but Outriders is the first day of Game Pass. This is rare for AAA games that are not developed by a Microsoft studio. If the demo weren’t enough to convince that the game was worth it (although it was a lot of fun), you still have a chance to try it all out without buying it.

Xbox Game Pass gets more complicated over time, with games being split between the console, PC, and cloud versions of the service. And Outriders is one of those cases. It launched on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S.

Will be Outriders be on the PC version of Xbox Game Pass? The answer is not that simple.

Is Outriders on Xbox Game Pass for PC?

Outriders is not on Xbox Game Pass for PC at launch. When it was announced in mid-March that he would arrive at Game Pass, Outriders was only listed for Xbox Game Pass via console and cloud. Microsoft reiterated it on Twitter the same day, confirming to a fan that he wouldn’t be on Xbox Game Pass for PC on day one.

If you have Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, you can only try Outriders on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S or stream it from the cloud on Android.

As the door is wide open for Outriders to get to the PC version of Game Pass, it’s not here at the moment. Square Enix and Microsoft have not officially commented on why this is the case. Still, this move makes sense given that Outriders is sold on Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Xbox Game Pass is separate from these popular PC showcases, so making it a Game Pass title on the Windows Store could cannibalize Outriderssales on Steam and Epic Games Store. Meanwhile, Square Enix only sells digital games through Microsoft on Xbox consoles, so it makes a lot more sense to put them on Xbox Game Pass there.

If more cross-platform AAA games like Outriders start showing up on Xbox Game Pass, this could become a more common problem as developers and publishers will likely still want to sell their games on other PC storefronts. It exposes the major problem with Xbox Game Pass: The game library is not unified across all three versions of the platform.

Games like Outriders and Fallout: New Vegas remain exclusive to the console, while others like Battletech and Crusader Kings III are only available on PC. It can be a bit confusing to figure out what is out there and where. Know that for the moment, Outriders is only available on Xbox Game Pass for console and cloud, and it’s unclear if or when that might change.

Outriders is now available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Stadia.