It appears to be the result of a mistake, but an upcoming Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S game scheduled to release on August 20 is free to download early. In fact, some users are reporting being able to play the game, despite it not being out for another 13 days. There is no formal announcement about the game being given away for free, let alone playable early, so this is almost certainly a pricing error or some other mistake, especially since it’s limited to just the Microsoft Store. While the game has a free demo elsewhere, it’s not showing as free to download on the Nintendo eShop, PlayStation Store, or Steam.
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More specifically, and likely only for a very limited time, Grim Trials is showing as free on the Microsoft Store. For those just learning about this game, it is a heavy metal action roguelite set to release on August 20, at the price of $20. It is from developer Glory Jam and publisher Softiously releasing Hello Goodboy in 2023, What Comes After in 2020, and Rage in Peace in 2018
Free to Claim and Play?
It is worth noting that this error only seems to manifest in the browser and not on the console or via the Xbox app. This also seems to confirm that this is just a weird bug. And if this is the case, then there is a good chance these free downloads will be revoked. Sometimes they are honored, but seldom does this happen with an upcoming game. This happens a few times a year on the Microsoft Store, but always for games already out. The fact that this game isn’t even out makes it even less likely these free downloads will be honored. That said, if you are able to claim the game for free and boot it up, and then go offline, you could presumably play the game from start to finish.
If there were in-game microtransactions that players could put money into, then revoking the download would potentially be more complicated, but that is not relevant here because there aren’t any in-game purchases.
Whatever the case, this glitch has been live for at least a couple of hours and hasn’t been caught yet, or at least, if it has, it has not been fixed yet. There’s also been no statement from the implicated parties.
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