The long-last Xbox classic Phantom Dust received a long-awaited revival back in May with a surprise release on Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs as a free-to-play title, and compared to the 2004/2005 release of the original, the remastered release has been welcomed by players with a significant milestone since launch.
Over on Phantom Dusted, Microsoft Studios Publishing creative director Adam Isgreen revealed that over one million players have downloaded/played the game's remastered version on Xbox One and Windows 10 since its launch in late May, explaining that "this blows away the original numbers of players the game had when first released," and adding that the team "couldn't be happier with the level of exposure that it has received."
In addition to the big milestone for the game's revival, Isgreen also provided patch notes for the game's second update, which introduces expansion skills and a daily reward system that will provide players with a free specific skill for the day, while bonus skills are also available for players that play at least 4 days in a given week. With 74 skills total, it would take players about 11 weeks to get all of the in-game skills for free, while random skills will also be earned for every 30 games played.
For players looking to take the shorter route to unlocking all of their skills, an expansion pack with 3 copies of all 74 in-game skills will also be available to purchase as an in-game micro-transaction for $4.99. Aside from the skills, in-game voice chat and an NPC mission guide are now also available, while other changes and fixes are available to view below:
Other changes and fixes:
Beyond the big changes, we’ve refined some behavior and fixed issues we’ve found, or the community has raised.
- 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
Known issue:
We have one lingering known issue regarding controller disconnection and chat. We’re working on a fix for this, but it’s easily worked around in the meantime.
- Disconnection of an active Xbox One chat device or powering down a controller with an Xbox chat device plugged into it while voice chat is active causes to the system to stop taking controller input
- Workaround: Avoid this by not disconnecting a chat device from the controller or Xbox during voice chat sessions or turning off or allowing the controller to lose power during voice chat sessions
If you’re chatting and playing wirelessly, make sure your batteries aren’t close to running out!
Phantom Dust is available now as a free-to-play title on Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs.