For 10 years, FromSoftware let its Armored Core series sit, as if waiting for just the right time to emerge with a new entry using modern mechanics and plenty learned from its soulsborne genre. On August 25, 2023, the developer will return to its niche series with Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, the sixth entry in the popular vehicular combat series, but will it be on its way to Game Pass too?
Set to be released on all modern consoles except the Nintendo Switch, Fires of Rubicon will blend the robotic firefights the series has been known for with some of the design philosophies of the Souls series.
Fans of the original series are definitely excited to see the Armored Core name back on the “Upcoming Release” schedule, but just how excited should Xbox players get, specifically? Will they be getting the advantage of a day-one Game Pass launch? We have the low-down on what players can expect, and just how the Armored Core series is landing more than a decade after the last moderately-received title.
Armored Core 6 on Game Pass
While Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon will be seeing a fairly wide release on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X & S, it’s not going to be finding its way to Game Pass, at least not at launch.
While several soulsborne games have been included in Microsoft’s subscription service, including Mortal Shell and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, FromSoftware doesn’t have a good history of bringing its titles to Game Pass. In fact, it’s safe to say that no FromSoftware title has ever been included in the service, so the likelihood for Fire of Rubicon is very slim.
About Armored Core 6
A half-century after being engulfed in an inferno caused by a new energy source, the planet Rubicon 3 is on the map again. Just as humanity had once tried (and failed) to funnel the source known as Coral to improve technological capabilities, mega-corporations and resistance groups are at it again. This time, Armored Core pilot and augmented human codenamed Raven enters the fray as an independent mercenary caught in the tug-of-war over Coral.
Players guide Raven through a mission-based structure, upgrading their mech and mastering a variety of weaponry to take down enemies on both sides of the fight. While Armored Core 6 retains some of the series’ DNA, the gameplay reveal at Summer Game Fest 2023 showcased elements clearly pulled from the Souls series.
The gameplay loop will be largely familiar to fans of the series, but additions like a hard lock-on, which keeps the camera focused on targeted enemies; the Estus Flask that works similarly to health kits; and massive boss battles read like inspirations from soulsborne games. That may change some elements of the series dramatically, but there’s no doubt that FromSoftware, who first brought the concept to players in 1997, would stay mostly true to what made Armored Core so popular.
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