Quantum Break is coming to Steam...and Windows 7

From Hayden Dingman at PC World:

Quantum Break, Remedy’s time-traveling action game and/or lengthy TV show, is coming to Steam.

It’s a pretty straightforward story, insofar as the facts are concerned. You’ll be able to buy it there starting September 14, and unlike the Windows Store version, the Steam version will run on any PC with Windows 7 (64 bit) or higher—no restriction to Windows 10 or DirectX 12, in other words.

Them’s the facts. But Quantum Break’s movement to Steam is quite a bit more interesting because of the implications.

Microsoft's bringing pretty much all of its “Xbox exclusive” games (barring a future announcement about Halo) to Windows 10 PCs at this point, under an initiative called Xbox Play Anywhere. And no doubt, these games will end up in the Windows Store. It’s Microsoft-owned. It allows them almost console-esque control over games that wind up on the PC. And the universal Windows app design is what enables the underlying Play Anywhere features in the first place.

Will they hit Steam too though? Earlier in the year Microsoft’s Phil Spencer said the company would eventually “ship games on Steam again,” but I still had my doubts it would occur for top-tier games—until Quantum Break. Now, it seems more likely.

Dingman goes on to list a few caveats:

• Quantum Break was technically just an Xbox “exclusive” that made it to PC, not an actual Play Anywhere title; 
• Remedy is not owned by Microsoft, so a Steam release could have been negotiated as part of Quantum Break’s (timed) exclusivity;
• Microsoft still might keep first-party games like Forza Horizon 3 or Gears of War 4 off Steam, for branding reasons.

He also notes that PC sales of games like Quantum Break are bound to be better on Steam than the Windows Store, and also that Quantum Break suffered from performance issues that stemmed directly from the Universal Windows Platform:

Hopefully the unfettered Steam version runs better.

And hopefully it’s not the last “Xbox Exclusive” to hit Steam. We’ll keep you updated.

With Tim Sweeney accusing Microsoft of plotting to kill Steam completely, it's important to bear in mind just delicate a dance this is for Microsoft, and for their partners in PC gaming. With Universal Windows Apps performing worse than Steam releases in every case, so far, and Steam's customers remaining very loyal to Valve, who promoted PC gaming for years when Microsoft seemingly weren't interested, it'll be interesting to see how many of those first-party titles do end up on Steam, and how many of their other "exclusive" titles actually stay exclusive, rather than chasing the money to PC gaming's biggest sales market. It's also interesting that Quantum Break's Steam release includes both Windows 7 and Windows 10 versions, a clear recognition of the number of PC Gamers who didn't switch operating systems.

UPDATE:
It turns out that this is even more interesting than I'd first thought.

From PC Invasion:

Those who purchased Quantum Break through the Windows 10 store are “unlikely” to see another patch for the game, according to Remedy’s Head of Communications Thomas Puha. Puha was replying on twitter to players still unhappy with the game’s performance, even after a recent July patch, stating: “Sorry to hear you are having problems. Its unlikely we release another Win10 patch”.

It was announced yesterday that Quantum Break would be getting a Windows 7-compatible, DirectX 11 Steam release in mid-September. That move now appears to mark an end to support for the Windows 10, DirectX 12 version.

So, not only is Quantum Break coming to Windows7/DX11 and Steam, in a version that will outperform the Windows10/DX12 version, but they're not even going to try to fix the DX12 version anymore. Did I mention that the Steam release is $20 cheaper than the full-retail Windows Store release?

No word yet on whether Quantum Break's Windows Store customers will get free Steam keys, to compensate for the Windows Store version being a broken mess (Puha: “we dont make those business decisions”), but considering that Quantum Break was a very high-profile flop for Windows' new Store, I'd say that Microsoft's evil plan (according to Tim Sweeney, anyway) to steal Steam's customers away is off to a rough start, to put it mildly.