While the sci-fi shooter RPG was already anticipated by fans, Outriders recently opened up to an even larger contingent of players after being confirmed for Xbox Game Pass on day one of release. This decision was certainly exciting as it enables those who wouldn’t have been able to play to get the game for the simple price of membership. However, it stands to reason that those who pre-ordered Outriders for Xbox One or Series X/S may feel a bit annoyed now that this lower-priced alternative is nearly out in the wild.

Square Enix recently addressed this concern in a post on Reddit, laying out a comprehensive explainer on how to refund an Outriders pre-order for Xbox-branded systems. Assuring players that they “absolutely get” the reasoning, senior community manager Toby Palm revealed the team has “worked hard with Xbox to make things as easy as possible” when securing a refund. Digital purchases were detailed to be completely cancellable from an Xbox account, while physical pre-orders would require additional assistance from the respective retailer.

All the actual steps discussed in the post can be viewed below.

• Sign in at https://account.microsoft.com/billing/orders
• Look for the pre-order in your order history – this will be dated from when you originally placed the pre-order, not when Outriders will be releasing
• Once found, you will see an option to Cancel the pre-order listed under the release date
  • a. If you’ve paid with a credit card, then it’ll cancel with no charge
  • b. If you’ve paid using Microsoft account credit (either fully or partially) then your credit will be returned to you, with no charge on the card
• If for any reason you don’t see the option to cancel, or if you’re trying to cancel within 10 days from launch, you’ll need to get in touch with the Xbox team via https://xbox.com/refund
  • Further support can be found here: Pre-order Xbox One digital games in the Microsoft Store | Xbox Support
• If you have pre-ordered via a local retailer (Amazon, Gamestop, GAME etc.) you will need to contact them directly regarding your order.

Seeing such transparency from Square Enix and People Can Fly is surely refreshing to see, especially as canceling pre-orders wouldn’t exactly be in either company’s best monetary interests. A follow-up post suggested as much, with Palm confirming those who keep their pre-order would be directly “helping and supporting the Outriders team” and expressing appreciation for “anyone who is willing to trust us with a pre-order and/or their hard earned cash.” With that said, he maintained that the final say would be “entirely up to you.”

This isn’t something we would ever take for granted and that’s why we’ve tried to lay out your options as easily as possible in the OP above. There are no expectations and anyone who does cancel their pre-order should not feel bad or be made to feel bad about their decision.”

​​Outriders releases for PC, ​​Google Stadia, ​​PlayStation 4, ​​PlayStation 5, ​​Xbox One, ​​and Xbox Series X/S on April 1st.​

What do you think? Are you impressed with how Square Enix is handling Outriders pre-orders? Between purchase and Xbox Game Pass, how are you planning to play the game when it releases? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to follow Don’t Feed the Gamers on Twitter and Facebook to be informed of the latest gaming and entertainment news 24 hours a day! For more headlines recently featured on DFTG, check out these next few news stories:

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