You’re probably familiar with going to Valve’s Steam service to download all kinds of PC, Linux, Mac, and even the latest Xbox Game Studios games. Yet at the same time, Microsoft also has its own Xbox app on Windows that lets you install its own games and other PC games like Destiny 2.
The two services compete with each other, but, according to an interview seen on PC Gamer, there’s a chance Microsoft and Valve might come together to put a PC version of Xbox Game Pass on the Steam store (via Neowin.)
This is just a rumor at the moment, and nothing has been confirmed, but Valve’s Gave Newell apparently seems very open to the idea. When asked by PC Gamer about Steam launching its own subscription service, or Xbox Game Pass Games, Newell had the following to say, praising Game Pass.
“I don’t think it’s something that we think we need to do ourselves, building a subscription service at this time. But for their customers it’s clearly a popular option, and we’d be more than happy to work with them to get that on Steam.”
Xbox Game Pass might be affordable, but by far, Steam is the most popular service with PC gamers and gamers in general. It was last reported in 2021, that Steam had 120 million monthly active users, with 62.6 million people using the service on a daily basis. Xbox Game Pass, meanwhile, has 25 million subscribers.
It would be interesting to see the two companies come together, just like what happened when Microsoft put its games on Steam in 2020. This could help sell more Xbox Game Pass subscriptions, and even help sell hardware like the Steam Deck, which will be getting optimizations for Windows.
Of course, rumors will be rumors, but this kind of partnership has been done before. EA Play was added to Steam back in 2020. So, hold your breath and hope for bigger things in the future.
