The first batch of free games on Xbox One and Xbox 360 via Xbox Live’s Games With Gold offer are now available. This enables Xbox Live Gold subscribers access to some key titles that they’d otherwise have to pay for.

Xbox One players get Double Fine Productions’ Massive Chalice, it’s second major crowd-funded title which focuses on strategy. There is also Pool Nation FX which was available last month and has been carried over into June.

Xbox 360 players have it much better. Just Cause 2, Avalanche Software’s breakout open world action title, will be available till June 15th for free. On June 16th to June 30th, Eidos Montreal’s Thief will be available for free. That’s a fairly decent selection, even if Thief isn’t exactly what we’d call “stellar”.

What are your thoughts on this month’s Games With Gold? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and stay tuned for more information.

Double Fine Productions’ crowd-funded turn based strategy title Massive Chalice has a release date on PC. According to the developer, it will be leaving Early Access on June 1st, thus enabling wide-spread distribution for all.

Massive Chalice is Double Fine’s second major Kickstarter campaign after Broken Age and had raised $1,229,014 at the time. Interestingly, it’s also scheduled to be coming to Xbox One as a console-exclusive, though it was later clarified that the PC version would be out first. For now, we’ll have to wait for an Xbox One release date so stay tuned for more information on that front.

Lead by Brad Muir of Iron Brigade fame, Massive Chalice was initially expected to release in September 2014 but was delayed. The title has been in Steam Early Access since November 2014 and it’s expected that Early Access members will receive some benefits when the full version hits. What are your thoughts on Massive Chalice finally releasing on PC? Let us know in the comments.

Microsoft may have announced plans for Massive Chalice to be hitting the Xbox One exclusively on consoles during its E3, but that doesn’t change plans for backers of the game on Kickstarter to still get the game before anyone else, Double Fine confirmed on their Kickstarter page.

“Nothing has changed with our plans to bring Massive Chalice to the PC and to make it available for our backers first,” they said in a recent update to backers. “YEAH! During this time we’ll be porting the game to the Xbox One. As soon as we’re done porting the game, we’ll launch it as a console exclusive on Xbox One. We’re super stoked to have this additional support in giving Massive Chalice the next-gen console treatment!“

The game, a strategy title, was successfully funded on Kickstarter as a game announced exclusively for PC; Double Fine’s assurance should allay fears that the backers’ money went towards funding a console version of the game, or something.

Stay tuned for more coverage of the game.

Double Fine Productions has had a strong pedigree with adventure games, with the occasional off-beat title like Brutal Legend. But while founder Tim Schafer enjoys making games like the recently released Broken Age, he recently stated to GamesTM that his next project would be the complete opposite of that.

On being asked whether he still wants to make a LucasArts-style adventure game, Schafer answered, “Yes and no. Now that we have this engine and this pipeline, it would be a shame not to make another one. But the whole reason a lot of games we make are different than the previous game is that I get this urge to try something different every time.

“Even if you look at the difference between Day of the Tentacle and Full Throttle, and then the difference between Full Throttle and Grim Fandango, you can see that there’s always this pleasure…I’m going to do the complete opposite of what I did last.”

Double Fine’s next title Massive Chalice is a tactical RPG that will be directed by Brad Muir, and that’s as different from Broken Age as you can get. But it’ll be interesting to see what Schafer’s mind cooks up next.

With that in mind, the developer will be announcing new reward tiers in the coming days, along with stretch goals. Massive Chalice is currently in development for PC, Mac and Linux.

For the developer, this means another successful crowd-funding campaign, with their first campaign raising up $3.3 million in funds. This game would later be announced as Broken Age, an adventure game helmed by Grim Fandango and Full Throttle creator and Double Fine founder Tim Schafer.

Massive Chalice is helmed by Brad Muir, instead of Schafer. Muir who originally worked as programmer on Psychonauts and a designer for Brutal Legend. As of now, the game appears to be heading for a late 2014 release.

Recently game lead Brad Muir and Double Fine co-founder Tim Schafer sat down with GamesIndustry International to talk about just why the Kickstarter mode of funding is so much better. Muir talked about his first experience developing a game and trying to make it through traditional publishing means.

“The previous game that I was working on, called Brazen, I had been pitching that game for an entire year. That was a tough sell, trying to pitch that game to publishers.

“I don’t want to name any names, but the stop-motion aesthetic – that game was based on the Ray Harryhausen stop-motion animations – was always the sticking point. That people wouldn’t relate to it or think it was cool.

“This was just a bunch of businessmen, like suits around a table. It was very hard for me to listen to their opinions of what gamers might actually like. It’s a very weird thing, taking your ideas to a small group of businessmen and having them tell you whether they think it’s going to sell or not.

“I don’t think they always know best. That’s the cool thing about this idea. This idea is brand-new. We haven’t taken this idea to anyone. We developed it and took it straight to the backers.”

As Schafer elucidates, “When Brad had this new idea and he was really excited about it; it was like, ‘do we really want to throw this back to that same process again?’ Watch Brad spend another year pitching and compromising his idea?

“Or do we want to go down this road where we just have to test this idea with the actual people who’ll be buying the game. ‘Hey, do you guys like this concept? If you like the concept we can do it.’ Much simpler and much better. With money that comes with fewer strings attached.”

Given that the studio’s first Kickstarter smashed records and opened a flood-gate of support for games funded with the platform, we don’t see any signs of the process slowing down any time soon.

Schafer stated that, “Double Fine is committed to remaining independent, and that includes being responsible to our fans above all else. Kickstarter allows us to do exactly that.”

The campaign currently has a goal of $725,000, and will end on June 27th. Massive Chalice will release in late 2014 for PC, Mac and Linux. With 27 days to go, the project has currently garnered 12,689 backers who have already pledged $459,624 thus far.

Game lead Brad Muir stated that the idea for Massive Chalice came from the fact that, “We love tactical strategy games, rogue-likes, and the idea of powerful Game of Thrones-style royal dynasties. Massive Chalice brings all of that together in a unique Double Fine package.”