Microsoft stealth released the Phantom Dust remaster on May 16 without any fanfare- but they gave it one crucial shot in the arm so that it would do well- they made it absolutely free. For everyone. Absolutely free, no hidden clauses, no asterisks.

Did the gambit pay off? Apparently. Adam Isgreen, Creative Director at Microsoft Studios has announced that the game now has 1 million players- given that it’s a free download, that presumably means it has ‘sold’ 1 million copies.

“On behalf of Microsoft and Code Mystics, we’d just like to say thank you to the over one million players out there that have checked the game out – this blows away the original numbers of players the game had when first released, and we couldn’t be happier with the level of exposure that it has received,” he said.

Additionally, a new patch for the game was also announced, which you can see the patch notes for for yourself below. Phantom Dust is available on Windows 10 PCs and Xbox One.

• Expansion skills are now available! (after Wednesday game update)
• In-game voice chat
• NPC mission guide
• Optimized performance options
• Updated Quick Match behavior to handle full lobbies more gracefully
• Resolved screen orientation issue that was present on some devices
• Fixed a bug on PC where title performance would dip on some systems when the VSync toggle option is set to off
• Fixed a bug where the active user can be changed without returning to the Phantom Dust title screen after a prompted sign in following a sign out from the main menu
• Fixed a bug where the cursor navigation inputs remain permanently active when a gamepad is disconnected while a cursor navigation input is held

Phantom Dust was originally going to be a full fledged reboot of the cult classic Xbox original. But the project was notably canceled, and was downgraded into what became an HD remaster of the original game. That HD remaster was released without much fanfare earlier this week on Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs- although it was also released for free.

Depending on how this totally free (albeit unmarketed) remaster does, there may be a chance that Microsoft does more with the Phantom Dust brand. At least, that’s what Publishing Director Adam Isgreen said during a live stream on Twitch.

“Originally, we were working on a remake for Phantom Dust. So, here’s the deal: the more people play this version of Phantom Dust, the more people you can get to play…Just play multiplayer, get your friends to play.

“That makes the conversation about doing more with Phantom Dust in the future super easy. And that’s the only thing I’ll ask of the fanbase of the game, just play. Play multiplayer! Get more people to experience the game. That’s all I need.

“Easy conversation for me to say “Hey, we want to do more of Phantom Dust”. And it makes it super easy for the people I work for, Phil [Spencer] and everybody else, to say “Okay, get to it”. So I guess that’s the catch. When we released the game, people said “Is it going to be free? Where’s the catch?” We want to do more of Phantom Dust, that’s the catch! Play it. Maybe we’ll even figure out how to put new levels, new characters into this game. We’re going to try. No promises.”

That’s… a fair ask. Play this game, which is totally free, so we know there is an interest in the brand. I can’t fault Microsoft for this one. That said, maybe some marketing for it might have helped?

Phantom Dust HD is available now on Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs.

The original pitch for Phantom Dust was a full fledged reboot of the Xbox original, a new, high budget spin on the original game for the Xbox One’s library. That did not happen- things fell apart, and instead, we are now getting a simple HD remaster of the original. Still, something is better than nothing, and it can be argued that if the remaster does well, maybe Microsoft will be more willing to revisit a brand new game in the future.

That said, we have so far not actually seen any of the remaster- so we’ve been unable to even see if this will be worth it at all. However, now we have the first gameplay footage to assess for ourselves whether or not the wait will have been worth it.

Xbox fans, and fans of the original Phantom Dust– what do you think? For those of you who are just jumping on board, does this look good to you? The game will be running in 1080p, with assets rendered in 4K, and according to Xbox head Phil Spencer, may be out before E3 next month. Which means it should be out some time this month. Let’s hope that is true.

The Phantom Dust remaster is coming- and while we still don’t know when exactly, we do know that it is coming some time soon. And Microsoft has also started hinting that fans of the title will really appreciate all that this remaster brings to the table, including Xbox Live functionality, and of course, better graphics.

‘We’re working with the original game code, but running it on an Xbox One, it just looks better, since the Xbox One is a much more powerful system,’ Xbox’s Shannon Loftis said, speaking of the game to Major Nelson. ‘It looks more modern, the heart of the gameplay is the same, and the best part is, we’re adding Xbox Live, with all Xbox Live features. It’s an Xbox Play Anywhere game, it supports Cross Play and Cross Save, and best of all, Achievements.’

If this title is successful, which hopefully it will be, then maybe we can see a full fledged revival of the franchise of the kind that was originally promised. I am sure Xbox fans would love to see something of that nature.

Phantom Dust, the remaster of the original Xbox card game, is coming soon to Xbox One- and with its release date rapidly approaching, Microsoft is now sharing more news and information on the game. Adam Isgreen, speaking on Twitter, has shared some new juicy details on the title that fans will probably appreciate.

These include the fact that the game has 45 Achievements, with 415 Gamerscore being awarded simply for playing through the campaign. The final game is also going to be just 3.4GB- that’s actually smaller than even the average Wii U or Switch game, and those games are tiny. Sadly, it also looks like the custom soundtracks feature of the Xbox original game will not be retained in the remaster- the development team explored the possibility, but could not make it work. Isgreen does say that they will look into implementing it post launch.

Are you excited for Phantom Dust? Will you be picking this up? Let us know in the comments section below.

#PhantomDust has 45 achievements, 415 GS is for standard progress through campaign. There's also one hidden (0 GS) achievement!

— Adam Isgreen (@Ishmae1) February 10, 2017

.@ma1asiah Dunno about pre-orders, but it's not a large game by today's standards – I think we're about… 3.4GB right now all-up.

— Adam Isgreen (@Ishmae1) February 20, 2017

.@MistaWicket We explored it! The challenge w/ it (& Groove too) is UI – we can't create UI to support these right now. Possibly post-launch

— Adam Isgreen (@Ishmae1) February 20, 2017

Though Darkside’s Phantom Dust has been temporarily suspended and the developer parting ways with Microsoft, Xbox One and PC users will receive a re-release of the 2004 Phantom Dust before E3 2017.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer noted on Twitter that Phantom Dust “should ship before E3.”

To clarify, this is Phantom Dust from 2004 but with some parts of the game being updated. Original assets are still the same however. Phantom Dust will also support Xbox Play Anywhere so buying it digitally on Xbox One or PC will earn you a free digital copy for the other platform. Saved games and Achievements are also shared between both platforms.

As of now, Microsoft hasn’t provided any information on new Phantom Dust which was showcased at E3 2014. After Darkside’s departure, the publisher has assured fans that it’s still in development but no updates have been provided thus far.

What are your thoughts on playing the original Phantom Dust? Let us know in the comments.

After Scalebound‘s cancellation, the problem is that a lot of people feel unsure about any game announcement Microsoft has made- or any game announcement Microsoft has made that isn’t a new Forza, Gears of War, or Halo, anyway. We’ve seen far too many cancellations from Microsoft for new IPs and other brands this generation, sometimes even for games that were nearing result.

So understandably enough, people are jittery about Phantom Dust– the project was originally supposed to be a full fledged reboot of the Xbox original, before work on it was cancelled, and the partnership with the studio making it called off. This new Phantom Dust is just a simple remake of the Xbox original- but we still haven’t heard much of it for a while. It’s natural for people to get antsy.

However, speaking on Twitter, Microsoft’s Shannon Loftis said that development on Phantom Dust is coming along well; she added that the reason it’s been taking so long is that it is a ‘decent effort to modernize an Xbox classic.’ Which is great, I think. I just hope it’s completed and released soon- Microsoft’s lineup of exclusives could do with a shot of arm this year.

Microsoft touted a new Phantom Dust at E3 2014 but it had been delayed after developer Darkside Game Studios shut down in 2015. According to an announcement on YouTube Live, Phantom Dust will apparently be releasing in 2017 for the Xbox One and PC. It will feature competitive play made possible thanks to the upcoming Arena feature on Xbox One. Xbox Play Anywhere will also be applicable to the release.

Here’s where things take a strange turn – Microsoft Studios head of publishing Shannon Loftis indicated during the same stream that Phantom Dust would be receiving a remaster in 2017. This remaster will apparently use a lot of the assets from the first game.

Are the remaster and new game one and the same thing? We’ll have to wait and see but it’s likely that development of Phantom Dust has shifted towards heavily remastering the original rather than developing a new game (which was anyway meant to be a reboot). Stay tuned for more information as this story hopefully becomes clearer.

When Microsoft announced Phantom Dust for the Xbox One in 2013, legions of fans who had greatly enjoyed the original title on the original Xbox found their hopes for a follow up suddenly, improbably, coming true against all odds- a Phantom Dust sequel was indeed going to be a thing. But then, rumors of the game’s troubled development started to surface, followed by the game being suspended indefinitely going forward, and at this point, a lot of people simply believe that the game is dead. But Phil Spencer insists that this is not the case- that Microsoft is still committed to doing a new game in the series.

“At some point, if I had to say it was a dead thing, I would just say it,” Spencer said in an interview with Polygon. “I do probably in hindsight, knowing everything I know now — which clearly I didn’t at the time when we announced it — I feel bad that we stood on stage and announced something that now we’re not delivering. That’s never my goal. But we had a plan to actually go build the game at the time. So I’m still encouraged.”

But why bother with a new Phantom Dust? The original game was a cult classic, sure, but it didn’t exactly light the charts on fire- and Microsoft’s franchise approach to first party development has shown us that they prefer big name hits more than anything else.

“I love Phantom Dust – I think the mechanics in Phantom Dust were ahead of their time, and I think about what today’s platforms enable and bringing that gameplay mechanic and story and setting to even, frankly, the 360 – and we kind of did that with the back-compat stuff we did then – but definitely today’s world would really help cement what that game could’ve achieved.”

Alright- so Spencer personally wants a new Phantom Dust game, and he says that Microsoft is committed to doing it eventually. But what is the game’s status right now? Have they at least found a new development team? What are they looking for in the studio that eventually gets the game?

“In terms of the studio that we’d find [for Phantom Dust], we’d want to find a good fit… I remember when we first announced that Killer Instinct was coming back, and when we announced who the developer was, we got a lot of ‘Oh, they’re not gonna do the job that everybody wants them to do!’ And I think when people saw what they were able to bring: Even though they didn’t really have a history of doing Killer Instinct, once we met with them, it was clear that those guys really got the IP.

For me, it’s more about finding a team that really gets the IP and understands what it is than where they’re from, and having [Yukio] Futatsugi-san involved with it would clearly help with making sure we don’t lose that,” said Spencer.

Phantom Dust is currently scheduled to release for the Xbox One eventually.

Remember Phantom Dust? Microsoft had promised an Xbox One reboot of the original Xbox exclusive title, and it had been something that fans had been fairly excited about- until the title sort of vanished without a trace, before ultimately being confirmed as having had its development suspended for the foreseeable future.

But it seems like Microsoft have not given up on the game, not yet. According to a registration with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, on January 13th, Microsoft filed for a trademark for Phantom Dust; the trademark was filed for a new video game, as well as a video game with online capabilities, which is about what we would expect from a new title in the series.

Could a Phantom Dust reboot still be coming? Xbox head Phil Spencer has proclaimed his love for the original title multiple times, and he has insisted that he will do everything in his power to ensure we get a new title in the franchise- could he actually have meant it, beyond just PR?