Long story short: Redmond spend a long, long time basically neglecting PC gamers in favour of XBox and XBox Live, and VALVe cleaned up while Microsoft weren't looking. Steam now has a customer base of over 125 million active users and climbing, far more than PS4 (just over 40M) and XBOne (20M) combined. Steam is PC gaming right now, and it's more in spite of Microsoft than because of them.
Microsoft would obviously like to take back control of PC gaming, and make PC gaming synonymous with Windows 10 gaming. But they can't alienate Steam gamers in the meantime, because those same gamers actually have a choice of OS to use: the service now lists nearly 5000 Linux/SteamOS titles, and customers who bought Windows versions of those same games get the SteamOS versions for free. Steam Machines aren't taking the world's living rooms by storm, or anything, but SteamOS remains as a threat to Microsoft, a reminder that they're not the only game in town anymore for PC gaming.
Which may be why, in spite of having just spent E3 talking about all the various ways in which they're trying to take control of PC gaming via Windows 10, Microsoft are now trying to reassure Steam gamers that they're not trying to freeze Steam out of PC gaming at the same time.
From Softpedia:
Microsoft has been under fire recently for pushing its own Windows 10 store as the main distribution channel for PC games, but in a recent interview on the sidelines of the E3 gaming conference in Los Angeles, Xbox chief Phil Spencer reveals that Steam will continue to play a key role in this regard too.
Spencer has pointed out that, despite the Windows 10 push, Microsoft still wants to have its games on Steam and will continue to make some titles available on Valve’s platform. No specifics have been provided, though, but Spencer has predicted that Steam would continue to grow bigger in the coming years, and this is probably one important reason why Microsoft still wants to make its games available through this platform.
"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. 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 incredible well. We will ship games on Steam again,” he is quoted as saying in a recent interview with GameSpot.So... They'll make some games available on Steam, at some point in the future... but won't commit to which games, or when, and we're supposed to believe that they're still committed to keeping Steam viable as the dominant force in PC gaming, a role that Microsoft is clearly angling to usurp. Just trust them seems to be the message here, a touch of spin which totally ignores the fact that GWX and #upgradegate have brought consumer trust of Redmond to something of a low ebb. ♫ Awkward. ♫
On the one hand, Spencer is right about one thing: the lack of Microsoft-published games is unlikely to make much of a dent on Steam's success. In fact, given the technical challenges of UWP, the fact that UWP games have run worse than Steam games in every case so far, and the deep distrust of Microsoft that's developed over the past year, I question whether MS are doing themselves any good at all by keeping their "first party" titles as exclusives in the first place.
But the idea that Microsoft want Steam to continue being the dominant player in PC gaming? That's horseshit. And I don't think that they're fooling anyone.
UPDATE:
Confirmed: I am definitely not alone on this one.
From Kotaku:
UPDATE:
Confirmed: I am definitely not alone on this one.
From Kotaku:
Microsoft clearly wants to grow the Windows Store, and while pushing smaller games on Steam doesn’t hurt that effort, exclusive bigger games stand to attract users to their neck of the woods. Moreover, we’re talking about a company with a history of being suffocatingly proprietary on PC. I want to believe they learned their lesson from fiascos like Games for Windows Live, but I’m not entirely optimistic.
It doesn’t help that Microsoft’s current cross-platform initiative, the Universal Windows Platform, has been harshly criticized for obtuseness when it comes to installing UWP-developed apps outside of the Windows Store. Microsoft is working to change that, but it wasn’t exactly the best foot to put forward at launch.
Sometimes design speaks louder than words, and PC gamers have been burned by Microsoft before. A lot of times! Hope springs eternal, but the spring is surrounded by a desert with lots of vultures who keep trying to sell you Xboxes.
Not that I doubted by own genius, or anything, but it's always nice to have company.
UPDATE #2:
It looks like Microsoft has finally realized that the vagueness was hurting them, on this one, and have announced some concrete details... for one of their upcoming games, anyway.
From WinBeta:
But remember: One occurrence is just an accident; two is just a coincidence; I'll need at least three of Microsoft's high-profile releases to obey this same rule before I'm willing to call it the start of a pattern. remember that this is a Capcom game, too, not a Microsoft joint, i.e. third party, not first party.
Still, the fact that they felt the need to say this explicitly is a wee bit heartening. One can only hope that maybe, just maybe, they're starting to feel the pressure of weeks of horrible PR.
UPDATE #2:
It looks like Microsoft has finally realized that the vagueness was hurting them, on this one, and have announced some concrete details... for one of their upcoming games, anyway.
From WinBeta:
According to a Gamespot report, Dead Rising 4 will only be a “timed exclusive” for Xbox One users and the game “could eventually make its way to PS4 and Steam.”
[...]
In an act of transparency, the Xbox division issued the following statement regarding Dead Risings partial exclusivity:The last game at that I bought at launch was Diablo III, and... well, let's just say that I'm planning to never buy another game at launch again, ever. That's a long, long story for another time, but long story short, I don't mind timed exclusives, since they never affect me. If this is going to be the template for future PC game releases by Microsoft, I'd be OK with that.
Dead Rising 4′ on Xbox One is developed by Capcom and will be published in partnership with Microsoft. Fans will be able to play ‘Dead Rising 4’ first on Xbox One and Windows 10 PC this December. It will remain a Windows 10 exclusive for the first 90 days and console exclusive on Xbox One for one year. We’ve had a close and longstanding relationship with Capcom including the launch of Dead Rising as an Xbox 360 exclusive and Dead Rising 3 as an Xbox One exclusive. We’re thrilled to partner with Capcom once again to help bring their ambitious vision for Dead Rising 4 to life.”While there was no direct mention of availability for the PS4, Microsoft’s statement explicitly highlights the length of Capcom’s agreement with division regarding console exclusivity. Whereas, last year’s Dead Rising 3 game was offered to PC gamers after 10 months and remains an Xbox One console exclusive till this day.
But remember: One occurrence is just an accident; two is just a coincidence; I'll need at least three of Microsoft's high-profile releases to obey this same rule before I'm willing to call it the start of a pattern. remember that this is a Capcom game, too, not a Microsoft joint, i.e. third party, not first party.
Still, the fact that they felt the need to say this explicitly is a wee bit heartening. One can only hope that maybe, just maybe, they're starting to feel the pressure of weeks of horrible PR.