Xbox gets massive free open-world RPG you can download now

Fancy getting your hands on a free new-gen upgrade?

You’ve come to the right place, my friends.

The only catch is you need to be an owner of the existing Xbox One version of the game and by ‘the game’, I’m talking about Black Desert Online.

Pearl Abyss has officially shutdown the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game, but that’s for a very good reason.

On 26 June, just a few days ago, the developer launched new PLayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S native editions which should run much more smoothly on your hardware.

These new-gen upgrades came at no extra cost to existing owners, so if you are an avid player of Black Desert, just be sure to download new version of the title from the Xbox Store if you’re wondering where your existing game has gone.

All progress will carry over.

The updated version should deliver faster loading times and improved performance, and it’s wild really that it’s taken this long for these overhauled editions to drop.

The free new-gen upgrades will be followed by a big ol’ content rollout on 10 July where players will be introduced to the new Deadeye class and Ulukita region.

Devs tease that this is the first update “built specifically for next-generation consoles”, so my exp[ecations are pretty high.

Of course, there is a pretty big downside to all of this.

If your a previous-gen console players, ie someone on PS4 or Xbox One, you’ll now have lost access to Black Desert Online completely.

That is, of course, until you upgrade your hardware and the new-gen version will there waiting for you to redeem for free.

Not everyone wants to fork out hundreds on new consoles though and I must admit, it’s a tad strange for Pearl Abyss to retire the outgoing versions the same day as the launch of the new ones.

I’m imagining perhaps the upcoming content updates might not work properly on the previous builds of the game.

If you can dive in though, Black Desert Online is available natively on Xbox Series X/S right now.