While the warm weather of summer is a good excuse to develop a tan or strengthen our swimming muscles, it's also a fine time to just relax at home with some quality games. Microsoft knows this, and has kicked off the Summer Spotlight Giveaway, with an Xbox One S, an Xbox Elite Wireless Controller, and more than 25 games as the grand prize. All you gotta do is watch a trailer and register.
If that's all you needed to hear, head over to Major Nelson's blog and scroll down to the terms and conditions form, watch the embedded trailer, and enter your name and email afterward. If you're curious about the games of the Summer Spotlight, read on:
Xbox 360 players may recall a program called Summer of Arcade that ran from 2008 to 2013. Since the summer months are typically more barren when it comes to big studio games, Summer of Arcade was a way to highlight smaller teams and their creative efforts. Summer Spotlight is that program's spiritual successor, rolling out new games every week from July 15 to September 5.
There's often a complementary sale as well, but this year it appears that the incentive for buying games is MyRewards Rewards Credits. You'll earn 4,000 credits by spending $40 or more on games marked as part of the Summer Spotlight, and once you hit 5,000, those credits will be converted into your local currency and deposited into your Microsoft account. The exchange rate varies, but in the US, 5,000 credits equals $5. For more info on the program (including other ways to earn points) check out the official site.
Thus far, the games revealed as part of Summer Spotlight are:
Action News Heroes, Dungeon Punks, Hyper Light Drifter, Kerbal Space Program, The Solus Project, Sword Coast Legends, Uno, and We Happy Few (Game Preview). Keep an eye on Major Nelson's blog and your Xbox One Store as more games are announced, and to see if you win the big giveaway.
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Sam is a former News Editor here at GamesRadar. His expert words have appeared on many of the web's well-known gaming sites, including Joystiq, Penny Arcade, Destructoid, and G4 Media, among others. Sam has a serious soft spot for MOBAs, MMOs, and emo music. Forever a farm boy, forever a '90s kid.