The ID@Xbox Winter Game Demo Event is being billed as an alternative to catching up on your gaming backlog, providing a week’s worth of game demos for the Xbox One and Series X|S. Though it looks like it’s actually going to be two weeks, with an even larger follow-up planned as soon as this first batch of demos is finished. These aren’t your typical demos, either. They’re more like preview “show floor” builds, which act as an early look (extremely early in some cases), but also encourage feedback for the developers. Seriously, the developers want you to look them up on social media and let them know your thoughts. The catch is that the games only available for a limited time during the event, after which they’ll be taken down. Some of them may reappear in the Demo channel at some point in the future, but Microsoft says most of them will only be available next week. Microsoft isn’t revealing the entire list of 20+ game demos just yet—we’ll have to wait until the first day of the event for that—but it has teased a few titles. These include SURT’s Rhythm Sprout (rhythm-action), Yaza Games’ Inkulinati (“ink-based” strategy), Outerloop Studios’ Thirsty Suitors (turn-based battles), and Rogue Sun’s Tin hearts (puzzle adventure). This first round (yes, there’s more) of winter demos kicks off on Tuesday, December 6, and will continue through Monday, December 12. The next assortment of 35+ demos go up on Tuesday, December 7, and run through Wednesday, December 21.
