GDC 2026: Introducing Foundation Mode for PlayFab
Ship your game to Xbox and get cross-platform game services for all your players, on every platform, included at no cost as part of the Xbox publishing agreement.
Cross-platform is the new standard
Games with cross-play retain better, monetize better, and grow larger communities. Most game teams are already building cross-platform experiences, and the studios investing early are seeing real results. But integrating backend services across multiple platforms has traditionally meant managing complex onboarding, separate accounts, and significant engineering overhead. The question isn't whether you can afford to build cross-platform. It's whether you can afford not to.
What is Foundation Mode?
We're excited to introduce Foundation Mode, a new offering that gives Xbox creators access to PlayFab's core game services across platforms at no additional cost. Every game that ships on Xbox gets to use PlayFab. For all your players. No matter where they play. No Azure subscription or payment instrument required.
And you don't have to wait until launch. The moment you commit to shipping on Xbox, these services are yours to build with, test with, and scale with.
What's included
Foundation Mode covers seven service pillars, and they’re all cross-platform:
- Identity: One unified player account across Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, Steam, Epic, and mobile.
- Progression: Cross-platform game saves, player profiles, and statistics. Players keep their progress no matter where they play.
- Community: Cross-platform friends, guilds, leaderboards, and real-time voice and text chat.
- Multiplayer: Lobbies, matchmaking, and real-time networking powered by Azure's global infrastructure.
- Live Service Management: Title data, title news, mobile push notifications, email templates, and Azure Functions integration for custom backend logic, all updatable without shipping a patch.
- Economy: Catalogs, virtual currencies, inventory, and bundles. From the smallest indie games to the largest AAA giants, PlayFab Economy scales with your game.
- Game Data Stream: Service-generated telemetry events that show you how players are interacting with every feature, across every platform.
PlayFab powers some of the largest games, serving millions of players around the world every day. That proven infrastructure is now available at no additional cost to Xbox creators.
How to get started
Foundation Mode enters public preview today for new titles planning to ship through the Xbox Store. Enable it in three easy steps
Create a game in Partner Center. Don't have a Partner Center account yet? Sign up at Xbox.com/ID to become an Xbox partner today.
- Request access to the Foundation Mode preview ring. In PlayFab Game Manager, open your studio settings and select the Preview Features tab. Then fill out the request form for Foundation Mode.
- Once approved, you can create new titles in Foundation Mode. Simply link your PlayFab title to your Partner Center game as part of the title creation flow.
That's it. Your new PlayFab title is in Foundation Mode and you can start building with cross-platform services at no additional cost.
If you're already shipping games with PlayFab, thank you. We will have more exciting news to share soon.
If you’re at GDC, come and meet us at the Xbox Lobby Lounge. Or join us for Microsoft Game Dev Discord office hours on Friday, March 27th at 11 am PT.
Build once. Launch everywhere. Reach the broadest possible audience with Foundation Mode game services that scale to meet all players, no matter where they play.
Learn more: - Foundation Mode Overview