'Towerborne' will launch first on Steam Early Access with Xbox Game Preview in tow, ahead of a 2025 free-to-play launch

What you need to know

• Towerborne is an upcoming side-scrolling online co-op beat 'em up from Stoic, known for The Banner Saga. 
• Published by Xbox, Towerborne is (for now) slated as an Xbox Series X|S and PC exclusive. 
• Today at Gamescom, Stoic revealed that Towerborne will launch initially in Steam Early Access on September 10, 2024. Xbox Game Preview will follow at a later date. 
• Towerborne will launch in full some time in 2025, as a free-to-play title. 

Towerborne is an upcoming Xbox / PC game developed by Stoic, known for The Banner Saga. 

Towerborne takes cues from side-scrolling beat 'em ups like Castle Crashers, Streets of Rage, and Golden Axe, while weaving in a big modern twist. Towerborne is at its core an online loot-oriented game too, where players will be able to hunt down a variety of weapon types, upgrades, and equipment to build out their unique combatant. 

At Gamescom 2024, we were treated with a new trailer for Towerborne, and also more information on when players can expect to get their hands on it. And it might be sooner, rather than later. At least, sort of. 

Why is Towerborne choosing Early Access?

Stoic has announced today that Towerborne will launch initially into Steam Early Access on September 10, with Xbox Game Preview to follow some time early in 2025. Thankfully, your progress on the Steam version will also carry across to Xbox Game Preview, thanks to account linking.  

"It starts with our Founders – players who’ve self-selected to get a first pass at helping us shape the full game," noted Trisha Stouffer, CEO of Stoic. "After Steam Early Access, with Xbox Game Preview next and eventually Free-to-Play with the full launch, the gates are thrown so wide for anyone to come in, which makes it harder to discern what is noise versus actionable feedback. So, our goal with Early Access is to position ourselves so the game is stable and feels great to play before we open up to a wider audience."

Stoic notes that they hope to emulate the success the studio saw with The Banner Saga on Kickstarter with a Steam Early Access Founders Pack, where it hopes players who are particularly invested in the game will be on-hand to provide feedback to help shape the game. 

Game Director Daniel McLaren emphasized that the Founders Pack and Early Access period will revolve around improving the game for its general release, later in 2025. "The Founder’s pack lets us do two main things: one is that we can slowly see where problems are and get attention onto those areas quickly. The second thing, it invites a group of people that are really invested in the game, that believe in Stoic. They want to be a part of shaping the future of Towerborne."

Xbox emphasized their support of Stoic's approach in the blog post up on Xbox Wire. Kristofor Mellroth, Executive Producer at Xbox Games Studios Publishing said, "We all have the same goal – to create a game that people love for a long time. From the start, we knew our approach with Towerborne was going to be a little different. By being very targeted at the start and building up to bigger audiences, this allows the team to continue iterating and honing the most complex systems to make them the most fun they can be.”

What is Towerborne?

Towerborne is a side-scrolling beat 'em up designed with accessibility and short gameplay loops in mind. Its tight combat draws inspiration from the weighty, impactful weapon variety of games like Monster Hunter and even From Software soulsborne games, but designed for players of all skill levels and time investment. Towerborne also borrows heavily from games like Diablo 4 with its loot systems, giving players a vast canvas to design their unique playstyle. 

"You don’t have to invest hundreds of hours every month to keep up with everybody else,” Stoic co-founder Arnie Jorgensen said. "Play as much as you want to, go away and play other games, and then come back. It’s important to acknowledge that everyone plays games differently. You can play for five or ten minutes and still feel like you accomplished something great, or you can play for five hours."

Indeed, in my own Towerborne preview from yesteryear, I found myself immediately sucked into that familiar "one more mission" gameplay loop that Stoic is gunning for here. The missions you can choose range from short and reactive, to more difficult and demanding. It's not unfamiliar to picking between a quick 10-minute Nightmare Dungeon in Diablo IV or phoning in three friends for hours-long sessions grinding out bosses and the like. 

Towerborne hits Steam Early Access on September 10, and goes fully free-to-play in 2025

The Steam Early Access approach is one Microsoft hasn't used frequently, but it's true that Steam has very mature systems in place for delivering this kind of experience. The Microsoft Store, however, does not, it also has a tiny audience compared to Steam, making Valve's dominant PC platform the obvious choice if the goal is oriented around gathering feedback. 

The free-to-play aspect is perhaps a little bit more concerning. There was no mention in the blog post about whether or not Stoic's approach would swerve "pay to win" accusations. Free to play games are, for sure, more "accessible," until you hit that paywall. How will Towerborne's free-to-play aspects work? Will I be able to buy powerful weapons instead of having to earn them? Will I be time-gated unless I pay up? What's the benefit of having Xbox Game Pass on top of Towerborne now if it's free? And so on. 

More questions than answers for this one, sadly. But what remains true is that Towerborne is already fantastically fun to play. Steam Early Access will only enhance that.