More of a heads up , you might be out of luck playing Quantum Break even if you purchased it

Andrepartthree · Apr 10, 2023

First post ever on the forum so apologies if I'm breaking any rules.. honestly this is more of a "heads up" sort of post in case .. highly unlikely I know .. but if there's someone else in the same boat I am, trying to play Quantum Break on their PC using the Xbox app only to discover it won't work.. posts like these do turn up in google search so I really hope someone who's trying to play Quantum Break sees this and doesn't waste many hours of their time like I did (I was too stubborn to quit I guess my fault entirely ) only to find out hours later WHY it won't work.

Many years ago the Microsoft store generously gave $10 worth of free credit to their online microsoft store which I used to grab Quantum Break at the time.. changed my microsoft account since then only to discover that 1) Quantum Break requires you to log in using Xbox's program/app even on Windows 10 and even if you are not trying to play it on an Xbox and 2) it can be a problem if years later you've moved on to and are using a different microsoft account than the one you bought the game on to begin with. Finally managed to figure out that problem hours later.

I made a point of logging into Quantum Break each day for a few weeks after that hoping it would "warn" the Microsoft servers I was still interested in the game and planned to play it after finishing up the PC game I had almost played through to completion and it let me go into the game and launch it with no problem.. then I got that infamous " We cannot connect you to xbox live" error message you see others bitterly complaining about that results in one not being able to play the game they want to.

I spent more hours after that trying every known trick I could find online including a bunch of commands run from the command prompt to clear the xbox cache, messing with the xbox entries on the registry , basically everything under the sun... nothing worked and then finally I saw this

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/remedys-quantum-break-delisted-from-storefronts-after-temporary-game-pass-removal

Somehow I don't think it's a coincidence my problems started right around the same time quantum break got removed from the xbox store ..

I have other games I can play in the meantime what's disappointing to me is the hours of time wasted trying to solve a problem that in my opinion was never going to be able to be solved in the first place.. I have a reminder set up in my online calendars each year to check back and see if the licensing issues they speak of were resolved such that Quantum Break is back on the microsoft store (at which point I'm hoping I'd be able to play it ).

So long story short, don't bother with Quantum Break until this licensing stuff is taken care of.. what's absolutely hilarious is it says right in the credits it was produced by Microsoft or something to that effect and they STILL had to remove it from the store due to licensing issues ..

:)

Andrepartthree

SwordofWhendon is correct with this, but just to add, since you own the game, you should still be able to download it from the Microsoft Store and play it on your Windows PC. Try redownloading it to the PC. Sometimes that's all you need to do to get a game working you haven't played for a while.

thanks for your advice and to both you and sword ofwhendon for taking the time to read this I appreciate it

I did try uninstalling and reinstalling the game (so yep can still download it despite it not being sold anymore) , and a zillion other troubleshooting steps

.. I wish I could find the websites in my history I can't for some reason but I did everything .. tried the registry entries for xbox, launched .. pretty sure it was powershell commands from the run command (going off memory here) to clear and reinstall everything xbox related, followed the standard troubleshooting steps (yep xbox services are online up and running, yep synced the time zones) , nothing helped... I just find it very interesting my problems started on the exact same day Microsoft removed the game from the store and I've seen some bitter reddit complaints about how persons who play an xbox purchased game are negatively affected once there's some sort of problem with licensing that results in the game being pulled from the xbox store and/or game pass even if they purchased the game which I'm now inclined to believe.

I do find myself wondering if I'd downloaded the optional "episode pack" .. I think it was 75 GB or something crazy like that.. of "live" prerecorded video you see based on your choices within the game if that would have circumvented the problem, I'm guessing the game wants to connect to xbox live so you see that stuff online instead of having to download it (honestly I wasn't even aware there was an option to download the "real life actor" video files that come with the game or I would have done that ) ... maybe if I'd done that the game would still have worked even with it being removed from the microsoft store

(shrugs shoulders) ... I have other games I can play in the meantime though to be honest given this was never an issue with steam games or the epic games store .. put it this way even when telltale games went out of business I could still easily install, download and play the telltale games I'd purchased on steam ... this has put me off purchasing a game from the microsoft store, ever. I will faithfully check back each year in case Microsoft got the licensing rights back to the game such that it's available in the storefront and if so I'll download the episode pack , try playing it and see if it works ... like I said earlier I'm honestly more upset that I wasted so many hours trying to troubleshoot this game only to discover that all my attempts were doomed to failure regardless.

I do find myself hoping that if someone who purchased quantum break tries to play this game they stumble across my post through the magic of google search and don't go through the same grief I did

... that's precious hours of time I could have spent playing a game instead

..

Again thank you both for your responses

StuartATrueRed

SwordofWhendon is correct with this, but just to add, since you own the game, you should still be able to download it from the Microsoft Store and play it on your Windows PC. Try redownloading it to the PC. Sometimes that's all you need to do to get a game working you haven't played for a while.

SwordofWhedon

Microsoft is not on the music or whatever intellectual property is causing the issue. This is the same reason why sports games, Forza, and other titles that use third-party intellectual property get removed from the store.

They don't have a choice.

Mister Beep

Hey Sibdrasil!

Just a heads up, we are looking into an issue with users not receiving their pre-order content from pre-ordering Quantum Break. All eligible users will receive an Xbox Live message with further information.

Just wanted to clarify with you on the details of the promotion, since you mentioned you purchased Quantum Break on the release date, you will not be eligible for Quantum Break on Windows 10 as that was for users that pre-ordered before the release.

Thank you for your patience.

Mister Beep

Hey Aldazar83,

If you purchased Quantum Break digitally after April 4th 2016, you will not be eligible for the Windows 10 code as that was specifically a pre-order offer. Since Quantum Break is not an Xbox Play Anywhere game, purchasing Quantum Break on Xbox One after
that date does not unlock the Windows 10 version.

Hope this helps clear it up!

More of a heads up , you might be out of luck playing Quantum Break even if you purchased it