Not many people remember Phantom Dust, the 2004 action strategy game released for the original Xbox, but those who do love the game with a fervent passion. That’s why when the game’s re-release received a surprise announcement during E3 2016, many fans of the cult classic got excited all over again. Microsoft’s head games marketing made another surprise announcement recently: Phantom Dust has just been released for Xbox One and Windows PC, and best of all, its free.
Aaron Greenberg, the head of Xbox Games marketing at Microsoft, made the announcement on Twitter a couple days ago. While Phantom Dust wasn’t exactly remastered, it did get updated a bit for modern consoles and PCs. Adam Isgreen, the game’s creative director, said the game has been updated for a 16:9 aspect ration, and even includes support for 1080p and 4k resolution display. Isgreen was adamant about keeping as much of the original game intact as possible:
So if people want to grind and they want to play exactly like they did when the original game came out, that is all in place. Everything about how the game works and functions is there. We really wanted to allow people to jump into multiplayer and play immediately.
A new version of Phantom Dust was originally announced at E3 2014, but the following year had no word from Microsoft on that project. Greenberg later said that although the game wasn’t in active development during that time, it wasn’t outright canceled either.
At E3 2016, Shannon Loftis of Microsoft Studios Publishing said Phantom Dust would be updated for modern times:
We’re using the original assets from the Phantom Dust that was released by Microsoft Japan in 2003… We are updating some key parts of it. We are updating it with modern Xbox Live.
Phantom Dust is now available for Xbox One and Windows 10. If you’ve never played it before, try it now for free.