Microsoft is obviously keen to push its own Windows Store as hard as possible, but when it comes to games, the company is planning to put future titles on Steam.
This is according to Phil Spencer, head of Xbox at Microsoft (and more broadly seen as head of gaming within the company), who discussed the matter in a lengthy interview with Giant Bomb at E3.
When questioned about whether Microsoft was looking to put games on Steam, Spencer initially asserted that they do – noting the likes of Age of Empires and Ori and the Blind Forest – but he was then asked whether it would make sense to put the bigger fry, first-party AAA stuff on Valve’s store in the future.
“It definitely could,” Spencer replied, before observing that Steam is a major force in Windows gaming and is growing massively still.
Spencer did also say he’d talked with Gabe Newell and there would be areas where Valve and Microsoft cooperate, and areas where they compete, but he added a definitive: “We will ship games on Steam again.”
Which games?
However, there was no indication given as to which games will be given the Steam treatment – as you’d expect at this point. He seemed rather cagey concerning whether this would be said blockbuster AAA releases, mind, and was careful to point out that Microsoft needs to do some work on its own, and push its own store.
Forza 6 Apex has apparently done very well with the Windows Store, although Quantum Break (pictured above) didn’t grab as much interest from the gaming public.
In short, when it comes to PC gaming, it seems Steam is just too big a force to be ignored for Microsoft, and so we should be expecting at least more Redmond games to appear on Valve’s store – although evidently not all of them.
Source: techradar.com