Scarlet Nexus has gained 1m players from Xbox Game Pass

Scarlet Nexus has seen its player base boosted by a million players from Xbox Game Pass, publisher Bandai Namco said today.

The announcement came as the game passed the two million player figure overall – with the other million coming from 1m copies shipped to retailers and sold digitally (thanks, RPGSite).

It’s intriguing to see the RPG gain such a large reach through Microsoft’s subscription service – at a time when the power of being included in these has been under the spotlight. The action RPG was added to Game Pass back in September last year.

Earlier this week, Oddworld Inhabitants’ Lorne Lanning said his deal to release Oddworld: Soulstorm on PlayStation Plus was “devastating” for the team, due to the game’s delay and the knock-on effect this had with more people playing the game via Plus rather than buying it outright.

Sony’s overhauled PlayStation Plus service launches in June, with three tiers of subscription to choose from.

Scarlet Nexus game director Kenji Anabuki has previously spoken of the benefits of being added to Xbox Game Pass, however.

“It has definitely given Scarlet Nexus a boost in publicity and popularity,” Anabuki said in February, as part of a discussion where he also mentioned ideas for a potential sequel. “It has also largely contributed to the visibility and sales of downloadable content.”