@tavishhill2003 They don't work for free though, I'm sure they get paid very well. MSFT was not doing anyone any favors on this or any other project until the fairly recent game pass 1st party announcement. They are out to make money for shareholders, not just give away to the community. They think it's a hit for long term subs to stay, so they finance these 1st party games (Sea of thieves, State of decay, Crackdown, Halo, Gears, Forza etc). If this was not on game pass, I feel few would bother until after release to see what's included at launch. That would lead to missed units sold, many possibly not purchasing until a later sale. The fact that Rare accepted being the first triple A title to release on launch parallel to retail in game pass, deserves proper respect. This is a first in the industry, and it's great for consumers.
MSFT has a vision for game pass, that's their new baby so they probably gave Rare a boatload of cash upfront because Rare is taking a possible hit on the $60 retail sales for game pass subs which is $ for MSFT.
That being said, this has been in dev for years, and been shown at multiple E3. It's not a pet project they just thought up last year. It's probably the only game in a good while that Rare has worked on publicly. Point being, what they have planned has probably been set in stone for a long time. They probably have agreements with MSFT to release tri-monthly to keep game pass subs alive. I imagine State of Decay and Crackdown (which are next in line for game pass), will be the same way, different genres or not.
I'm all game pass here on both Win10/Xbox now, I will not purchase any 1st party titles anymore. So I thank both Rare for being the first AAA in, and MSFT for trying to change the industry to better consumer wallets.
Let's see what the media says on launch. One thing is certain, no matter how bad it gets attacked by reviews, they will still release some sort of content for at least a year to come. (My opinion).