This decade’s best horror game picks up “Xbox Play Anywhere” support on PC and Xbox Ally — but … don’t download it yet

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Xbox Play Anywhere is a really useful feature, but it can also be surprisingly tricky to use. Resident Evil Village is a perfect example of this happening again!

Resident Evil Village is a significant horror game by Capcom, and like Resident Evil 7, it successfully brought the long-running series back to life.

Since the very beginning with PlayStation 1, Resident Evil has been scaring gamers with its stories of horror and biological disasters. The games usually involve outbreaks of zombies, mutated creatures, and other terrifying monsters, often caused by unethical science companies or secret government groups. Players must fight to survive against overwhelming challenges, not only to save themselves but frequently to rescue others caught in the chaos.

This series helped create the “survival horror” genre, emphasizing careful resource management – players have limited ammo, health, and other helpful items that must be found through exploration. While Resident Evil 5 and 6 weren’t as well-received, the series made a strong comeback with Resident Evil 7 and 8, the latter often called Resident Evil Village.

Microsoft recently revealed that Resident Evil Village will be available on Xbox Game Pass starting January 20, 2026. This announcement coincides with Capcom’s promotion of the upcoming game, Resident Evil Requiem, which is set to release on February 27, 2026.

The upcoming game, Requiem, will connect to the story of Resident Evil Village, fitting into the larger Resident Evil universe. That universe features a constant battle for control of dangerous, human-made plagues, viruses, and parasites, involving bioterrorist groups, powerful companies, and secretive cults. Resident Evil 7 and Village focus on the story of Ethan Winters, an ordinary man unexpectedly thrown into this worldwide fight against bio-terrorism, a conflict that longtime fans of the series will recognize.

Resident Evil 7 was one of the first major games from a third-party developer to launch on Xbox PC and with Xbox Play Anywhere support. Since then, Capcom hasn’t consistently supported Microsoft’s PC and Xbox platforms. While games like Exoprimal, Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 7, and Kuntisu-gami offered Xbox Play Anywhere features, others like Street Fighter, Resident Evil 4, and Resident Evil Village didn’t – until now. Interestingly, Resident Evil 3 was released as a standalone game, meaning players couldn’t carry their progress or purchases between platforms.

It’s unclear why Capcom hasn’t consistently supported Xbox Play Anywhere. While agreements with PlayStation for marketing purposes likely play a role, it’s also possible Capcom doesn’t fully understand how Xbox works on PC.

When Resident Evil Village was first announced, it wasn’t clear if it would be part of the Xbox Play Anywhere program, causing some uncertainty about its availability on Xbox Game Pass. I checked with sources and confirmed it *should* have been included with Play Anywhere support, and today that support was officially added. However, there’s still an issue.

There’s a problem with the PC version of Resident Evil Village on Xbox. When you try to install it, you only download a small file – it doesn’t download the actual game. Strangely, it *does* try to sync save data from your Xbox Series X|S console, but if you try to launch the game on your PC or a device like the Xbox Ally, it crashes with an error message.

This issue likely stems from the way the game was released. It’s currently on Xbox Series X|S, and the developers are preparing it for its upcoming release on Xbox PC Game Pass. Unfortunately, this preparation has caused the PC version to stop working.

This is a specific problem that shows how new and developing the Xbox PC store still is. I recently reported on a frustrating save issue in Death Stranding on Xbox PC that took two years to resolve for players.

Microsoft has been working hard to get game publishers, both large and small, to release their games on the Xbox PC store. However, it faces a significant challenge competing with Steam, which currently dominates the market for PC gamers who enjoy a wide variety of games. Microsoft has likely succeeded in attracting PC gamers who prefer subscription services. Plus, popular online games like League of Legends, Call of Duty, Fortnite, Roblox, and World of Warcraft are increasingly making Microsoft’s platform a go-to place for major online titles not yet found on Steam.

With Windows and Microsoft facing some challenges recently, the Xbox PC platform is a real success story. It’s still new and developing, but updates and improvements are being released frequently. I expect more game developers and players to start using Xbox PC in the next year.

I’ve been using the Xbox Ally as my main gaming device, so I was happy to see Resident Evil Village become available for it, even with a few minor, temporary issues. I expect the game will also be released as a PC app when it officially launches on Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Cloud Gaming on January 20, 2026.

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2026-01-15 13:10