Much to everyone’s delight, Microsoft began supporting gaming on PC with their games after years of ignoring the platform in favor of Xbox. However, as is always the case with Microsoft, there was a catch- the support was for Microsoft’s own store and format, the Windows Store, which only sell software in the UWA format.
For a lot of people, buying things from the Windows Store, which is a total and absolute mess, and playing them in UWA form, which is a closed format that does not support any extensions or modifications, was not an alluring prospect- especially since most of Microsoft’s PC efforts so far have been terribly unoptimized.
However, it looks like Microsoft are ready to capitulate to what the market wants now- they had already announced that Dead Rising 4, which they are publishing, would be coming to other PC storefronts than their own after a month of Windows Store exclusivity at E3- and now, they are also bringing Remedy’s Quantum Break to Steam, to the delight of a lot of PC fans of Remedy who wanted to play the game, but didn’t want to put up with the Windows Store.
And this is not the end, either- speaking to DualShockers, Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg said that the company would look into supporting Steam with their games more, where it made sense for them.
“Well, from a fist-party standpoint, over the years, we’ve always had titles in the Steam store, from Age of Empires, to Alan Wake, to even more recently we had titles like Ori and State of Decay,” Greenberg told DualShockers. “We have and we’ll continue to look where it makes sense to bring out titles to Steam.”
“We’re excited to have brought Quantum Break there, we know there are fans of the Steam store, and costumers there that we can reach, that will enable the title to have even more success,” he added.
Which doesn’t sound like every Microsoft game will be on Valve’s storefront- and it is likely that Microsoft’s premier games, like Gears of War and Halo will remain exclusive to their own store and format. But their relatively smaller games, such as Quantum Break and Dead Rising, at the very least, will probably be put on Steam- and that seems to be a nice compromise overall.