One of my biggest pet peeves is a game on Xbox Game Pass for PC that comes without achievements. Xbox Game Pass is supposedly part of the Xbox ecosystem, right? On PC, games in the Xbox app should hold to the same standard the console versions do with regard to the features that are included. Yet that too often has not been the case. Fortunately, Control is now a part of Xbox Game Pass for PC, and good news: it has achievements.
A post over on the Xbox blog highlights a number of titles coming to Game Pass soon, including:
- Control (PC) – Jan. 21
- Desperados 3 (Cloud, Console, PC) – Jan. 21
- Donut County (Cloud, Console, PC) – Jan. 21
- Outer Wilds (Cloud) – Jan. 21
- Cyber Shadow (Cloud, Console, PC) – Jan. 26
- The Medium (Series X|S, PC) – Jan. 28
- Yakuza 3 Remastered (Cloud, Console, PC) – Jan. 28
- Yakuza 4 Remastered (Cloud, Console, PC) – Jan. 28
- Yakuza 5 Remastered (Cloud, Console, PC) – Jan. 28
But Control really deserves a highlight here, as far too often, games that have already released on console get dropped onto PC lacking any achievements whatsoever. Heck, you can boot up Alan Wake — another Remedy game — on Game Pass for PC right now and not get a single achievement from it. Even Remedy hasn’t been entirely consistent on this front.
I have complained plenty about this in the past, so it’s only right to dish some praise at the PC games that put in the extra work. I presume, based on the past Yakuza releases on PC, that Yakuza 3, 4, and 5 will also support achievements. Maybe we are finally getting to a place where developers will put more effort in on this front and take being part of the Xbox ecosystem seriously.
And maybe, just maybe, Microsoft will start forcing developers to add achievements at some point, just like it does on console. Let us pray.