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Xbox Owners Get Over 60 New Game Demos to Play on July 21

The majority of the demos will only be available to play for a week before they 'simply evaporate.'

 & Matthew Humphries Former Senior Editor

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Xbox One owners are set to get a lot of entertainment for free later this month as Microsoft has revealed it's planning to release more than 60 new game demos.

News of the demos came via Glenn Gregory, Senior Product Marketing Manager for [email protected] In a post on Xbox Wire, Gregory explained that as part of the Summer Games Fest, Xbox is holding a Summer Games Fest Demo Event, which will be live on Xbox One from July 21-27. As part of the event, "We’ll have more than 60 brand-new game demos for upcoming, unreleased Xbox games available to check out for free! Look for the special Game Fest Demo tile on the Xbox One Dashboard that week to find the collection of available demos."

Gregory points out that these aren't normal game demos as they aren't representative of final games. Instead, Microsoft is offering access to games that "won't be out for quite some time," meaning the demo you play is very early gameplay and therefore subject to lots of changes and probably more than a few bugs. The other important thing to remember is how short-lived these demos will be. Microsoft only plans to offer access to them for a week, after which they will "simply evaporate." Some may return to the Demo channel at a later date, but most won't, so play them while you can.

The full list of demos has yet to be revealed, but the following titles are being highlighted by Microsoft:

By the time the Summer Games Fest Demo Event is over, Microsoft says it will have revealed between 75 and 100 games. However, it looks like they will all be Xbox One titles as Microsoft is planning a separate event this month focused on Xbox Series X games. In other words, there's a lot of life left in the Xbox One, and a hell of a lot of new games to consider playing on the platform over the coming few months and even years.

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About Our Expert

Matthew Humphries

Matthew Humphries

Former Senior Editor

My Experience

I started working at PCMag in November 2016, covering all areas of technology and video game news. Before that I spent nearly 15 years working at Geek.com as a writer and editor. I also spent the first six years after leaving university as a professional game designer working with Disney, Games Workshop, 20th Century Fox, and Vivendi.

I hold two degrees: a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and a Master's degree in Games Development. My first book, Make Your Own Pixel Art, is available from all good book shops.

My Areas of Expertise

  • PC components and system building
  • Raspberry Pi
  • Software development
  • Storage technology
  • Video games and gaming hardware

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