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Bandwidth: Xbox adds multiple indie day one releases as Friends & Family approaches launch

While Xbox is great at bringing new and relevant games to Xbox Game Pass, we don’t see a lot of day one releases. This week that changes. Xbox is releasing several brand new indie-developed releases for plays. On top of that, we get a sneak peek into the new Xbox Friends & Family branding.

Bandwidth is 9to5Google’s weekly look at the cloud gaming market beyond Google’s own Stadia platform. Every Friday, we take a look at the biggest news regarding services such as Nvidia GeForce Now, Amazon Luna, PlayStation Now, and Xbox Game Pass, among others. Come back weekly, and don’t forget to check out Stadia Changelogour weekly roundup of everything new on Stadia.

Xbox brings several fresh titles

Out of every gaming category out there, indie games have a different feel to them. They come to life a little bit better in some ways and have a little more heart than others. Xbox is more than doubling down on this feeling with 6 new Humble Games titles.

Included in the list is Midnight Fight Express, which is a colorful brawler that sets you in the criminal underworld. You can play as a former member of that life and have your eyes set on stopping a hostile takeover.

Midnight Fight Express is available to play now on Game Pass Ultimate, as is the rest of this week’s Humble Games:

  • Moonscars
  • Ghost Song
  • Infinite Guitars
  • Prodeus
  • Signalis

At the beginning of the month, we covered the news that Xbox was working on a game-sharing plan for friends and family. This plan would allow others to play your Xbox Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate games while saving you a little bit of money. The new feature is being tested in Ireland and Colombia currently, though we may see it move into the states at some point this year.

xbox friends family

While there are no concrete plans – that we know of – it seems Xbox is getting closer to that goal. Within the past week, a user on Twitter posted some official-looking branding for the new Xbox Friends & Family plan. While it isn’t much to go off of or even really be too excited about, it does potentially point to a closer release date for players and subscribers.

GeForce Now brings September’s lineup

GeForce Now is heading into September with a bag full of games – 22 to be exact. Out of those games, a good few are day-on releases, which keeps GeForce Now on top for brand new titles in the cloud.

This week, GeForce Now is bringing Steelrising, an action-RPG based in France that takes you down a different historical past. King Louis XVI is on a rampage and has control of his mechanical soldier army. Aegis – your character – is tasked with taking him down.

On top of Steelrising, GFN is bringing plenty more to choose from in September. This week, you can start playing these titles:

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