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Microsoft Will Distribute More Xbox Titles Through Steam and Finally Support Win32 Games (theverge.com) 65

Microsoft says it's committed to supporting competing PC game stores and it's announcing today that it will distribute more Xbox Game Studios titles through Valve's Steam marketplace. From a report: Typically, Microsoft has distributed its games through only Xbox Live on its game console platform and through its own Windows storefront on PC. Now, Microsoft says it wants to better support player choice and let customers buy games in more than one destination on PC. "Our intent is to make our Xbox Game Studios PC games available in multiple stores, including our own Microsoft Store on Windows, at their launch. We believe you should have choice in where you buy your PC games," writes Xbox chief Phil Spencer in a blog post announcing the shift in strategy. The move follows Microsoft's decision earlier this year to publish its upcoming PC port of Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Steam.
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Microsoft Will Distribute More Xbox Titles Through Steam and Finally Support Win32 Games

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  • by war4peace ( 1628283 ) on Thursday May 30, 2019 @12:42PM (#58680742)

    ...Microsoft realized that their coverage through their own store is shit.

    • Re:Obviously (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Bigjeff5 ( 1143585 ) on Thursday May 30, 2019 @01:01PM (#58680882)

      I think they also see the beating the Epic launcher is currently taking as both a wake-call and an opportunity to garner some good will from their customers.

      The important point for Microsoft, I'm sure, is that people are buying their products. Bonus if they're buying it from their own store, where they can get as much profit as possible, but that's just bonus. They still make money on sales through Steam, and Steam is hugely popular, so they should be selling through Steam too as long as their profit margins are reasonable.

      I personally don't want a second games library, ever. I only want one. Steam got there first, and it does a great job. When I want to play a game, I don't even look at the icons on my desktop, I go to the Steam library to pick out what I want to play. I've never bought through the Windows Store or Epic, and I've never really considered it.

      When I see a cool game go exclusive to Epic I don't think "That's going to be annoying to run a second launcher", instead I think "Guess I'm not playing that one." It's going to take a lot for me to add a second store, and so far nothing has given me a good enough reason to do so.

      I'm not sure how many people out there are like me in that regard, unwilling to jump to different libraries and launchers, but I doubt I'm very strange. It's probably a sizable chunk of your audience you're cutting out by being exclusive to one store.

      • While I use more than one store (Mainly Steam and GOG) I'd really like to have everything on one place and not having to bother with several launchers and shops.
        I don't care about multiplayer and neither about playing games the moment they're released and thus I won't really suffer much if Epic manage to keep some games exclusive to their shop. Anyway, I don't like what they're doing and so I refuse to use their plaform out of principle.
        • by DRJlaw ( 946416 )

          While I use more than one store (Mainly Steam and GOG) I'd really like to have everything on one place and not having to bother with several launchers and shops.
          I don't care about multiplayer and neither about playing games the moment they're released and thus I won't really suffer much if Epic manage to keep some games exclusive to their shop. Anyway, I don't like what they're doing and so I refuse to use their plaform out of principle.

          You can add non-Steam games to the Steam installed-games list and launc

      • There are some people like you, but more people actually game on PC without using Steam than through Steam. The most popular PC games are not even on Steam. Fortnite and League of Legends have more active players than every Steam game combined. There are tons of hugely popular games that aren't on Steam. Every Blizzard game, Destiny 2, the new Call of Duty, all of the new EA games and many others. Then you have the mid sized games that have their own launchers, or start out on their own launchers and r
        • I'm fine without crap like LoL and Fortnite. I have Destiny 2 for free on one of my consoles, never bothered with it. Also fine without Call of Duty.

          I'm seeing a lot of "competitive multiplayer" titles there, in which I have zero interest.

        • I'm one of those some people like him.

          What do I miss? Fortnite? Good. Destiny 2? Whatever it may be. Call of Duty? I have Arma, thank you very much. League of Legends? Lol.

          And so on. Funny enough, none of the games you list are something I'd care about. Mostly because the people I play with don't either. We're old. Most of us are 30+, and quite a few 40+ years old. We do have a very different taste in games than the teenage crowd, it seems. Most games I own by now are from indie developers. And you won't fi

      • Yep, that's my attitude as well. When Age of Empires 1 got re-released on the Windows store, I didn't buy it. Now that it's coming out for Steam, I will buy it. I don't think it's that uncommon a phenomenon, either. The sales on the Windows store have been terrible, which is probably why they decided to release on Steam - despite losing more money per sale, they will get far more sales.

      • Bonus if they're buying it from their own store ... but that's just bonus

        No it's not, Microsoft has gone to extreme lengths to build its own walled garden outside of the Xbox. This is an acknowledgement that they have failed.

    • I think Microsoft realized some time ago that what software or platform you use isn't nearly as important as making sure people buy it from them. That's why Azure doesn't just host Windows Server, thats why WSL exists and that's why Xbox is becoming less of a platform and more of a games publisher. They have realized what people like Epic haven't. Consumers have made their choice in how they want to use their software. Console gamers and PC gamers are different groups and it doesn't matter how great the nex

      • by Kaenneth ( 82978 )

        Even just a few years ago, Microsoft was still rabidly anti-competitive.

        They had fully developed Office for iPad within a year of the iPad's release, but kept it under wraps to sell more Windows/Surface units.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I've been gaming for as far as I remember (born 79, got my first console in 83)... My choices of consoles has always been based on exclusive titles... And the flaw of XBox is that none of the great exclusive titles remain exclusive for long. Most of them have been ported to PC at one time or another... I got the XBox one for Killer Instinct (played on Arcade, SNES and N64... alot) so the draw to this title was enough for me to spend money for the game, console and 2 joysticks (the XB1 d-pads are horrible
  • So can Steam games, like Civ VI, be played on Xbox?
    • May I be present when someone tries to port games like Arma to a console? I could need a good laugh.

      Seriously, there are games that are good on console controllers and there are games that are good on mouse/keyboard setups. Don't mix them. RTS and FPS on a console is always an embarrassing nightmare.

  • Fable 2: PC confirmed. Got it. No need to fact check that.
    • If there's a buck in it, then it will happen. I, for one, will pay little more than a buck to play Fable 2 again. I am however excited that this Halo compendium is coming to the PC, which I hadn't noticed earlier. Halo was a nice romp, and I always wanted to play it with my Trackman, and without auto-aim. I did play the original Halo on PC, and I had a good time with it. I sold my 360 a while back...

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