Phil Spencer of Microsoft has confirmed that Microsoft games will be coming to Steam once again. This comes in partnership with the new Microsoft “
Play Anywhere” scheme which involves buying a game once and being able to play cross platform.
The app stores on windows computers have proven to not be the most popular platforms for buying and playing games. Most gamers are often confused as to where to get games from, as the Microsoft app store isn’t a very intuitive place to find a game and just expect releases to appear on Steam, or perhaps Origin.
Phil Spencer talked about this in detail; "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," Outlined Spencer. "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 incredibly well. We will ship games on Steam again."
He discussed how the Microsoft stores haven’t been as successful as they would have hoped. However, they hope to work on the popularity of their store and don’t promise all games to be released on steam. He said “I think they're doing fine without Quantum Break in their store,”.
You could expect the big games such as Halo and Gears to appear on Steam, as it would make sense from a business point of view to get their biggest games on the biggest platforms where they would gain the most popularity and exposure, and in turn, sales.
Are you pleased about Microsoft games coming to Steam? What previous Microsoft Studios games would you like to see?