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Microsoft Still Wants Its Games on Steam Despite Windows 10 Push

We still want our own store, though, company exec says

Jun 17, 2016 08:18 GMT  ·  By
Microsoft is still keen on building its own games store
   Microsoft is still keen on building its own games store

Microsoft has been under fire recently for pushing its own Windows 10 store as the main distribution channel for PC games, but in a recent interview on the sidelines of the E3 gaming conference in Los Angeles, Xbox chief Phil Spencer reveals that Steam will continue to play a key role in this regard too.

Spencer has pointed out that, despite the Windows 10 push, Microsoft still wants to have its games on Steam and will continue to make some titles available on Valve’s platform. No specifics have been provided, though, but Spencer has predicted that Steam would continue to grow bigger in the coming years, and this is probably one important reason why Microsoft still wants to make its games available through this platform.

"I look at Steam today, it's on an incredible growth trajectory. It's a massive force in gaming; a positive force. I think it will be bigger a year from now than it is today. And five years later it will still be bigger again. I look at Valve as an important [independent software vendor] for us on Windows. They are a critical part of gaming's success on Windows. I don't think Valve's hurt by not having our first-party games in their store right now. They're doing incredible well. We will ship games on Steam again,” he is quoted as saying in a recent interview with GameSpot.

Microsoft still wants its own store

Spencer has announced, however, that “I want to build a store, there’s no doubt about it,” thus reiterating once again that Microsoft wants to have its own store to ship apps and games directly to users.

And while the Xbox executive has admitted that some games that were published on Steam were quite successful, such as Age of Empires II HD and Ori and the Blind Forest, there were titles that didn’t make sense to be released on the platform, including here Quantum Break. “I think they’re doing fine without Quantum Break in their store,” Spencer explains.

In the end, the Xbox chief points out that, by bringing its own games on Steam, Microsoft and Valve are both friends and rivals, and this can only be good news for users around the world. Competition is what drives evolution forward, and Microsoft is very keen on fighting Steam.