Something to look forward to: It's a good day to be a PC gamer. In a major shift to its strategy in approaching the PC market, Microsoft wants to give gamers more choice and will soon distribute its Xbox Game Studio titles on multiple stores including Valve's Steam.
Game libraries of many Steam users will soon be graced by titles that would typically have been available only on Microsoft's Store for PC and Xbox Live for the company's gaming console. But ahead of E3, Microsoft is looking to change that with its commitment to support player choice and enable gamers to choose from multiple storefronts.
The company is set to bring out the big guns at the event with plans to reveal its Xbox Game Pass for PC, an entirely new games subscription service for PC gamers and as many as 14 first party titles set for reveal.
Just finishing our final E3 rehearsal here with the team in Redmond. Feel really good about the briefing. Lots to show. We have 14 Xbox Game Studios games in the show this year, more first party games than we've ever had in the show. Fun times. #XboxE3
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) May 30, 2019
Xbox chief Phil Spencer explains his vision for contributing to the PC gaming ecosystem. "As the creators of Windows, we have a unique responsibility to ensure we’re investing in experiences that benefit players everywhere, while respecting the PC community’s preference for an open, highly customizable platform."
The PC community likes choice and that will come as Microsoft looks to release a number of titles on the Steam store. "We will continue to add to the more than 20 Xbox Game Studios titles on Steam, starting with Gears 5 and all Age of Empires I, II, and III: Definitive Editions. We know millions of PC gamers trust Steam as a great source to buy PC games and we’ve heard the feedback that PC gamers would like choice."
Spencer also pointed out that Microsoft's Store will be getting support for native Win32 games (essentially everything else that is not UWP), a format that the company acknowledges is loved by game developers and gamers alike ... we are excited to share that we will be enabling full support for native Win32 games to the Microsoft Store on Windows. This will unlock more options for developers and gamers alike, allowing for the customization and control they’ve come to expect from the open Windows gaming ecosystem."
E3 2019 is looking promising, we just have to wait until June 9 to see what else it's got in store for us.
https://www.techspot.com/news/80318-you-soon-able-buy-microsoft-xbox-studio-titles.html
