Xbox Seems To Have Officially Renamed Its Platform For PC Games

Maybe it will help people understand that PC and Xbox are both 'Microsoft' Platforms - not 'separate' - although with PC, you also have Steam too but Steam is not the ONLY PC option.

Xbox PC may also be their Console and PC platform - great for play anywhere as any Xbox PC game could run on either a PC or a Xbox Console. Buying it on Console won't get you the 'steam' version and Game Pass PC isn't available on Steam.

Xbox PC could be like Steam - have a Console and a PC presence, games you buy on Xbox PC are playable on both - just like Steam games bought on PC can be played on the Steamdeck console.

Does this mean they are going to try and compete with Steam more directly, through their own store? It would circumvent the question marks i had, about how they’d make money with this Asus handheld.

But it would also be very ambitious, trying to take on Steam. Aren’t PC players like very loyal to that platform? Just ask Epic Games, even with their Fortnite money it’s really difficult to get a strong foothold in the space.

What about attracting publishers? How do they plan to compete with Steam? Lower platform fees?

So many questions, and maybe i’m way off here. But i guess we’ll find out more sunday. Excited for the showcase!

It be what it be so say the man by the sea🤔

@BAMozzy the steam deck is definitely still a pc handheld no matter how hard you want to argue against it, but I see your point. That unified approach where you just have your Xbox games library available on whatever device supports it is exactly what I want to see!

@LogicStrikesAgain They already compete with Steam - they also own Battlenet and Bethesda who both have their own Storefronts and Battlenet is more popular for CoD than Steam for example.

If you buy on Steam, you can play on Steamdeck on the go - but you can't play 'Xbox' console games on the go natively - you can play via cloud or if you own a Handheld PC but not every Xbox Console game is sold with 'Play Anywhere' so you'd have to buy the PC version or use Game Pass PC if its on there.

Steam isn't the ONLY choice on PC - its perhaps the most well known, but MS has their own store and Game Pass PC too which are separate from Steam - if you play BO6 on Game Pass, Battlenet or bought from Microsoft, you don't play through 'Steam'.

Maybe MS will merge Battlenet, Bethesda and their own store together and lets not forget, EA and Ubisoft also have their own Digital store and sub services too. I'm sure 3rd Party Publishers will want their 'PC' games in every store they can on PC - just like they'll want their Physical discs in every Physical store - they don't care if its sold be Amazon, Game or SimplyGame, they want 'sales'. If a company wants to release their game for Windows PC and/or Xbox, then they'll want their game in MS's store. You could theoretically buy James Bond on 'Xbox PC' and play on Xbox consoles or Windows PC because its the 'same' platform, same game etc. Maybe the Console version has 'optimised' settings as you'd expect as 'default' but like a PC, you have the option to change them...

@BAMozzy

Steam isn't the ONLY choice on PC

I understand, that’s why i also mentioned Epic Games. But what i meant was,i’m wondering if they planning to compete more directly with Steam on this device, using their own store.

Because Epic tried hard to compete with their store, even lowering platform fees to like 12% or something, and giving away games. But Steam still dominates the PC space, showing how big of a challenge it is to compete.

Thats why i raise those questions, if they are going to compete more directly, how will they do that?

And i guess you give some solid answers like consolidating Battlenet etc.

Fortunately we wont have to speculate long until we find out more sunday

The article says… “its plans to make a PC a major part of the brand.”

Clearly the a is a typo. But if Microsoft launched a PC/Xbox that had Steam. It would be a winner.

I hope this was a Freudian slip. 😇

• So either they only put Steam on it, and get no platform fees.
• Or put Steam and Xbox PC on it, so they could make some money throught their store, but then they’d have to compete for sales with Steam, and i’m curious to see how they’d approach something like that.
• Or they only put Xbox PC store on it, which would be a crazy high risk gamble, but might work
• Or option D, which is also very plausible, i’m just way off here and need some sleep.

All in all, pretty excited to hear more about it. Even if i’m still not interested in this handheld

I'm good with this. They're branching out and they're (kinda) rebranding to make everything unified. Keen to see how this plays out in years to come.

@LogicStrikesAgain Steam doesn't dominate the PC space - certainly not with some games - Take Call of Duty, 2/3rds play on Console and 1/3rd on PC - but only 6% play on Steam. Therefore the vast majority of PC gamers are not playing CoD on Steam. Chances are that Battlenet, Game Pass PC and/or MS own store (all of which are MS owned) is where the majority play.

I'd also expect games like Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Doom, Indiana Jones etc to be more popular on Bethesda, Game Pass and MS Store than steam.

Steam maybe the most known, but doesn't mean its where the majority of PC gamers buy or play - just like you can buy from Amazon to save a few pennies, they can shop around and buy games cheaper elsewhere.

I think the point is that Xbox and Windows are both Microsoft and whether you buy an Xbox or a Windows based gaming PC, you are still a Microsoft customer.

As digital has taking over, people want their 'library' to carry forward with them but as you know, consoles can have issues with Back Compat - especially as Physical Media becomes obsolete. Having games locked to your Profile instead of to specific Hardware should make it easy to move within that Hardware family. Upgrade from a Console to PC, your Console games come with you and vice versa - you get the 'version' for the Hardware you signed in on.

What you have to remember, Xbox was built to bring PC games to a much wider audience at a time when Gaming PC's were very expensive. Games like Halo, Fallout, Elder Scrolls etc would never have come to consoles had MS not built their Xbox to make PC gaming more accessible/affordable. Now you can buy a Handheld gaming PC at a Console price point

They need to be careful about the marketing message on this. Until they actually get Xbox games working on Windows then this could sow much confusion. The average person will wonder why they can't access their full game library on their Xbox handheld.

@BAMozzy Just to clarify, i’m not super knowledgable about all of it. I’m just trying to piece things together on what they might do. I dont wanna claim anything with certainty.

Having said that, i do think saying “Steam doesnt dominate the PC space” is a bit of a stretch. Steam is by far the largest platform on PC, even if some games like CoD have fewer players on it compared to other platforms.

I get that your enthousiasm for Xbox, and i’m not against that at all. I’m just curious how they’ll position this handheld, especially when it comes to storefronts. That’s where my questions come from, just thinking out loud how certain scenarios might play out

@Millionski Congrats with the Switch 2 man, hope u enjoy it!

@Millionski I can definitely see them doing both those things. Interested to hear more about it. Although getting a fee from Steam might be troublesome, i wonder if that happened before, and how that would work.
And it begs the question, would Steam get a cut whenever a sale goes through the Xbox PC store?

But maybe they did make a deal, it would definitely be a good move if they’ve managed to arrange something like that

@Millionski Oh, that’s what you mean. Yes, maybe they worked something like that out. But that would only work for Xbox titles then. Which might be only 2% of Steams total library. Xbox would still get $0 for every non Xbox title sold through Steam.

No need to speculate long about it though, we’ll know exactly how theyre gonna do it soon enough. Excited for the showcase!

Where on earth did you get this? We know from leaked FTC trial docs and also from Bobby K's testimony that more people play CoD on PC than on PS and Xbox combined.

We also know more people play CoD on mobile than the other 3 combined.

Just ditch the Box part, they're not making substantial investments into hardware, just very niche high powered consoles with the rest coming from their mega software services and gaming revenues. Think they need to just bite the bullet and fully rebrand already. Xbox PC is a bad name and confusing. PC gamers are well aware of various storefronts including the Microsoft store and we all know the MSFT store icon as Xbox gamers. All for the change! Just keep making great games like they've been doing all year and we will all accept whatever the brand morphs into

@Millionski I just got mine too! Hope they just drop tons of online 3rd party ports. There are a few online games I'd like to play on the go that my Xbox Gamepass + Razer Kishi just can't handle 🥲

@LogicStrikesAgain Steam does utterly dominate the PC space as a central library for games. GoG, Origin, Epic, MS Store all exist but have never posed any real threat at all. Epic came the closest but its main use is the free games, and the others are also mainly used for free games /deals via Prime or Humble. GoG is the only one with a unique feature as they still promote DRM free game, albeit to a lesser extent now.

Battlenet is a bit of an outlier in that it gets a lot of use, but its got maybe 15 games on there and its main feature is that its linked to your blizzard account which links you across all their games. Ie you can talk to you WoW buddies whilst playing Diablo.

Steam is number one and its just just due to it being the oldest, or having great sales. Features like Discovery, Chat, Profiles, Workshop, Reviews, Discussions all contribute to making it far better than any other platform out there currently.

@LogicStrikesAgain I think MS know it’s futile trying to be top dog in any market, so this isn’t necessarily a play to compete with Steam. Their current approach is to coexist.
Really they need to sell games. Preferably on their own platform but they aren’t averse to selling millions on PS5 or Steam either. I can see Xbox PC being an OS too that will see multiple OEM manufacturers building devices with this on top that can run Steam or Xbox. MS won’t care as long as you’re buying COD/Halo/Forza on top!

Please let that eventually translate to an xbox os on PC so I can play my 360 library on PC. Please!

@elpardo1984 Yeah i think you’re right. They just want to be everywhere, whatever hardware that may be.

But i meant, on this specific device, if they put both Steam and Xbox pc store on it, they will be competing for sales with Steam.

Not necessarily trying to be top dog. But with every game someone wants to purchase, they’ll be looking at both stores and will have to decide which one to choose. If they Pick Steam, Xbox doesnt get a cut.

So they will be competing in a way, to get people to buy from them. But thats just an if, we dont know what they are planning. Lets wait and see how they approach this on sunday