We've got some big news coming out of Crytek relating to the future of Hunt: Showdown, with the company announcing that a free Xbox Series X|S upgrade is on the way, but it'll have a major effect on Xbox One players.
In a nutshell, the plan is to upgrade to a new and more powerful version of the CryEngine in early 2024, and this means that the Xbox One and PS4 versions of Hunt: Showdown "will no longer be available for play". There's no specific date for the shutdown on Xbox One just yet, but it definitely won't occur until at least April of next year.
"With this upgrade we'll be raising both the minimum PC and console specs that Hunt: Showdown will support. The important note for console users is that with the upgrade and launches on Xbox Series X and S as well as PS5 consoles, the previous generation of consoles such as PS4 and Xbox One versions of Hunt: Showdown will no longer be available for play.
The removal of PS4 and Xbox One support will not happen any sooner than April 2024, but is being announced now to give ample notice to any affected players."
Crytek says that the changes to minimum specs should only affect less than 10% of the active playerbase for Hunt: Showdown, "while greatly enhancing the experience for the other 90%". It sounds as though everything will carry over to the Xbox Series X|S version as well, including player history, inventories and any DLC purchases.
So, it's a bit of a good news, bad news situation! There are clearly big plans ahead for Hunt: Showdown on the current generation of consoles, but sadly it appears it'll no longer be playable on Xbox One in just a few months' time.