Microsoft Game

Steam secured its success for PC gaming early on; before most gaming platforms caught on, it was one of the largest digital distribution platforms for PC gaming. In 2019 the platform had over 34,000 games with roughly 95 million monthly active users. Over the years since then, they’ve been able to retain their market share, primarily due to their ability to adapt and evolve. They offer competitive pricing on games, great discounts, excellent sales, as well as highly-rated customer support. Steam’s game library is incredibly vast, from indie titles to AAA. From JRPGs to FPS, they practically have everything. Valve has a winner with the Steam platform.

Steam and Microsoft Collaboration

In the past couple of weeks, Valve’s Steam and Microsoft Game Pass have been high on the gaming trend list. Valve CEO Gabe Newell has expressed their openness to bringing Microsoft PC Game Pass to Steam. Since they have no intention of launching an Xbox Game Pass competitor, this would be an ideal collaboration. 

Microsoft is not new to the Steam platform. The software creator has been distributing more of its Xbox Games through Steam since 2019; games like Sea of Thieves, Allegiance, and Microsoft Flight Simulator are a few titles from Microsoft already available on Steam. If you are into gambling games, Steam has Hoyle Casino and Casino Inc. to indulge you, but if you’d rather play at the best online casinos for real money, there are several options too.

In a few media interviews and press releases, Microsoft has indicated that they would also be open to Steam being added to its new Windows app store. The devil will be in the details with negotiations for a deal like this. One of those details could be the different percentages the companies workaround; Valve takes a 30 percent cut on all Steam sales and then lowers it to 20 percent once sales exceed $50 million. On the other hand, Microsoft recently reduced its cut to just 12 percent on Windows store sales. These cuts are monitored and periodically reviewed by the relevant gaming bodies.

It Is A Win-Win

Microsoft Game Pass is available as a stand-alone on the Microsoft store, and it’s also available on Xbox through a Game Pass subscription. Many gamers have complained about the offering from Xbox, and the issue isn’t the games but rather the Xbox App itself. The Xbox application is prone to bugs that seemingly get worse with time; the library feature also doesn’t work on occasion regardless of whatever game title you enter in the search tab.

Microsoft could be set to making some serious money from a collaboration with Steam.

But Steam would also benefit from this arrangement; in the past couple of years, they have faced fierce competition from Epic. 

The competitor has secured some exciting games the past year; The Matrix Awakens, Rumbleverse, and Alan Wake 2. With Microsoft mainly making blockbuster games, Steam is set to give Epic a run for their money and reap good monetary rewards.

One Last Thing

Valve and Microsoft Game Pass are both giants in the gaming sphere, and a collaboration between them would be lucrative for both companies. It’s not only the companies who stand to benefit, though, and gamers would have more freedom in choosing where they buy their games. Having Microsoft Game Pass on a platform like Steam would ensure a smoother gaming experience for gamers.