Xbox Play Anywhere lets you play Xbox and Windows 10 games across both platforms

A new initiative from Microsoft is bringing the Xbox One and Windows 10 a lot closer together. It's called "Xbox Play Anywhere," and it lets you buy participating cross-platform games once, and own them on both platforms. If you buy a game on Xbox One it will simply appear in your Windows 10 library, and vice versa, and your saved games, achievements, and other information will carry over between the two versions.

As part of the announcement, Microsoft says it's putting a larger effort behind releasing its own games on both platforms. "We've made a commitment to bring our first-party games to Windows and Xbox One," Xbox chief Phil Spencer says. The launch line-up for XPA features some of the Xbox One's biggest upcoming games, including Recore, Forza Horizon 3, and Halo Wars 2. Additionally, several smaller indie games will be included, such as the much-anticipated We Happy Few. Microsoft previously did something similar with the release of Quantum Break — which was free on Windows 10 for those who bought it on Xbox One — but the company says the process is much more streamlined now.

Currently the service is mainly focused on Microsoft's first-party releases, but the company expects that to expand to more third-party-developed games in the future. The complete list of Xbox Play Anywhere games includes the following titles:

• Forza Horizon 3
• Gears of War 4
• Halo Wars 2
• ReCore
• Scalebound
• Sea of Thieves
• State of Decay 2
• We Happy Few