Microsoft is making PC gaming a bigger priority than ever before with Windows 10, but that doesn't mean the company is looking to dethrone the current king of the PC gaming marketplace, according to one Microsoft exec.
The company that Bill Gates built is of course talking about Valve's Steam platform, the virtual game store and community that makes up a huge portion of the PC gaming market. With Windows 10 and the Xbox app looking to unify Microsoft's two gaming platforms, some might say it appears obvious Microsoft is looking to go toe-to-toe with Valve. But Microsoft says that isn't exactly the case.
"We are not intending to compete with Steam," Microsoft senior director for PC gaming Kevin Unangst tells PC Gamer. "If anything, we want Steam to be even more successful - they've done great things for PC gamers in terms of having a single store."
That doesn't mean Microsoft won't be giving Valve some competition, however. Unangst goes on to say Microsoft definitely wants to attract more developers to the Windows game store, but not not an any exclusive way.
"Over time do we want more developers to come over to our store and offer it in addition to Steam? Absolutely," he says. "Is competition good for people? Absolutely. But our goal right now isn't to do anything else other than support Steam and help it run great on Windows 10."
Xbox boss Phil Spencer recently teased that mouse support would be coming to the Xbox One sooner rather than later. On the game front, the announcement of Halo Wars 2 at Gamescom goes a long way towards building a bridge between Microsoft's two gaming platforms. Real time strategy titles like Halo Wars have traditionally fared better on PC thanks to keyboard and mouse controls. The fact that Halo Wars 2 will be releasing on both PC and Xbox seems like further evidence that the line between Xbox and Windows 10 will continue to blur as more games are released on both platforms.
Even if Microsoft doesn't want to kick Steam to the curb, exclusive, cross-platform compatible titles will definitely help Microsoft's own digital game store stand out.
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