LOS ANGELES—Microsoft's E3 press conference included the announcement of Xbox Game Preview, a service that largely mimics the Early Access feature of the Steam PC games store. The new feature will allow Xbox One game developers to launch games that are technically unfinished, providing users with a chance to sample and beta test before the game's formal launch.

The feature will launch later this year for all Xbox One owners, but console owners who are in the system's dashboard preview program can jump in today and download the games Elite: Dangerous and The Long Dark. When the program launches for all users, Bohemian Interactive's open-world, early-access hit DayZ will also launch on Xbox One—and that news gave DayZ co-creator Dean Hall an opportunity to unveil a new space-survival game, Ion. Its eerie trailer ended with an announcement that the new game would launch in 2016.

Unlike Steam Early Access, Xbox Game Preview will allow players to try new, not-quite-finished games for a limited trial period before plunking down cash. Microsoft did not specify how long that free trial would last, however.

Other indie games featured at the Microsoft E3 press conference included the '40s cartoon romp Cuphead, a gorgeous watercolor-smothered adventure game called Beyond Eyes, and an atmospheric adventure game called Tacoma from the team behind indie story-adventure hit Gone Home.