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The Verge: Microsoft wants to make the Xbox app the home of PC gaming
- Thread starter Thick Thighs Save Lives
- Start date
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DirtyBast8rd
Member
I un-installed that shit from my pc. Never.
FIREKNIGHT2029
Member
HogIsland
Member
wildly premature, plus your "receipts" make no interesting predictions and aren't proof of anything
kruis
Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
Astray
Member
I think they are definitely trying, and it's likely their prior attempts to do so that are at least partially driving Microsoft to do this.
Windows' current position is dominant, but also delicately positioned. Microsoft cannot afford to allow rivals to start taking installs from them. This is a big money maker for them and gaming is one of their key markets.
I also think Valve is fighting an uphill battle here, I think they have gotten far too comfortable living on Microsoft's "turf" and are scrambling too late to address this. They have a chance at success but it will require taking on risks and maybe stepping on some gamer toes. We'll see.
This comes at a time where they might be potentially facing a Sony PC storefront too.
Life is about to become a bit more stressful for Gabe.
Syphon Filter
Member
Ideally no app should be needed on pc, it should just be a drm free installer like gog and no drm.
mayham2199
Member
I agree I just think it's going to be a lot like all their other endeavors to take over another established company. Half assed and in the end abandoned. Nothing MS has done in gaming leads me to believe they can take over Steam.
In fact all the stuff you mentioned is the same stuff I hear every single time Xbox tries to enter a new market. All these grand plans they have and how they can do this or that and really turn things around. In the end it always ends up in the same place. Hell I was just listening to Cog talk about on his podcast that he was trying to play a game but it wasn't updated to the latest version but it was on steam. That's like basic PC store shit and Xbox is still dealing with basic shit like that.
Topher
Identifies as young
That would be met with heavy resistance. That wouldn't be a weak Xbox division acquiring a publisher, but rather a monopolistic Windows platform removing competition in a massive way. But even before all that, I seriously doubt Gabe would sell Valve.
mayham2199
Member
Well I think by waiting for an opportunity he means Gabe passing away. Which I don't think is crazy to think that could happen soon. The guy is clearly obese and is 62.
Zacfoldor
Member
Hey, Microsoft is no longer in the console war, they are a platform.
PC gamers had momentum thinking MS was going to drive the end of consoles and everyone getting a PC.
Turns out MS wants to fuck up Steam and force you onto the Xbox app/gamepass by having platform exclusives.
You best start believin' in walled gardens Mrs. Turner, you're in one!
PC gamers had momentum thinking MS was going to drive the end of consoles and everyone getting a PC.
Turns out MS wants to fuck up Steam and force you onto the Xbox app/gamepass by having platform exclusives.
You best start believin' in walled gardens Mrs. Turner, you're in one!
hououinkyouma00
Member
Good fucking luck. That app is one of the worst things I’ve ever used.
It’s like they took all those bullshit arguments against PC gaming and designed the entire experience around it.
The storage leak is the worst part though. I actually ended up throwing another M.2 in my PC and ending up using it as my Game Pass drive so I could easily wipe it so that the storage leak didn’t affect my main drive.
It’s like they took all those bullshit arguments against PC gaming and designed the entire experience around it.
The storage leak is the worst part though. I actually ended up throwing another M.2 in my PC and ending up using it as my Game Pass drive so I could easily wipe it so that the storage leak didn’t affect my main drive.
Zacfoldor
Member
He lost the weight. Wegovy is a miracle drug. Praise be that we will have many more decades of Gaben foiling insidious Microsoft plots.
HogIsland
Member
there's a reason why steam is winning and not gog. we've tried this before and it lost.
should consoles go back to having no system UI? it's retrograde.
Horseganador
Member
Astray
Member
People kept telling me Valve and Microsoft are going to collaborate and Microsoft will allow Valve to just make come in and make money on the new Xbox hybrid machines. I predicted the opposite.
How is that not interesting to you? It's a battle that almost no one saw coming in this way (and yes, it's a battle).
I have grown very uncharitable towards Microsoft gaming initiatives, and I have some skepticism about their ability to pull it off, but it's hard to not think that they have big cards that Epic or GOG simply don't.
They also have the money to just keep trying (Sony knows this very well), and will be able to devote a lot more than they currently do with Xbox. They don't even pay market rate for cloud hosting like Epic or Sony do.
Windows is their baby and they have been making rakes of cash off it, they will not allow a big chunk of that to go away. Plus, there is clearly discontent at watching Valve make cash off their OS.
Also Microsoft typically does badly in things that require hardware, but I haven't seen them fail at achieving victory in anything that's purely to do with Software and Services under Satya's reign.
They are honestly Valve's final boss when you think about it.
That's very hard to do because the antitrust case would be far too clear-cut (monopoly over PC gaming, potential foreclosure on Linux-based competitor OSes, monopoly over development frameworks like DX12 etc).
Their only option is to do something like this and nip the Steam OS issue in the bud.
Yep.
Topher
Identifies as young
Valve post-Gabe is definitely a concern. Still don't think Microsoft would be able to acquire Valve. That doesn't mean someone else couldn't though.
The Shepard
Member
There's not enough people in the Xbox eco system to support those studios game budgets. Imagine spending 70 billion and then having those studios in the red, never going to happen.
I can see Microsoft one day try and buy steam. I reckon that's there endgame on pc. If you can't beat em, buy em.
metareferential
Member
They forgot to add "again".
No way it's happening. They still don't understand pc gaming.
They just want to bruteforce their way in, to destroy everything and build a closed garden.
No thanks.
No way it's happening. They still don't understand pc gaming.
They just want to bruteforce their way in, to destroy everything and build a closed garden.
No thanks.
mayham2199
Member
The money angle isn't even something I entertain anymore. Xbox is clearly done just throwing money around and I don't believe they will ever go back to that. If they truly had all that money and they truly had no issue spending it we wouldn't be seeing games go to Steam. It would all be exclusive to the Xbox store. Even ABK kept their games off the steam store for a long time.
They haven't failed at software under Satya but when is the last time they took on something as large as Steam or even the default mobile stores?
They are aware they are also incompetent. They can't even get devs to properly keep their games updated on that store.
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Loomy
Banned
The biggest benefit we can get from this is Steam being forced to actually hiresome UI/UX designers/developers to update Steam. Because god damn. They've shown with the deck they can do it. Just need to scale it up to PC.
Now, for this? Microsoft is fucking crazy lol. They should set realistic goals.
Now, for this? Microsoft is fucking crazy lol. They should set realistic goals.
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Ass of Can Whooping
Gold Member
Hopefully Sony buys them and makes PSN a Steam requirement
Little Chicken
Banned
Nice! Congrats Xbox and I hope the innovation and hard work pays off! 
HogIsland
Member
Windows has to get better for gaming. Windows getting better for gaming is not evidence of MS playing dirty toward Valve/Steam.
There's lots of examples of Microsoft going out of their way to support Steam AND SteamOS:
- Updating Master Chief Collection specifically to support the Deck
- Shutting down Bethesda's launcher and converting to Steam licenses
- Bringing Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 to Steam with no Battle.net requirement
Xbox is a more reliable supporter of Steam than Playstation.
Potential causes for a "victory lap" (which haven't happened):
- MS stops putting games on Steam or imposes exclusivity windows in favor of their platforms
- Xbox games on Steam throw up a big Xbox launcher as with Ubisoft
- Xbox games work on Windows but not SteamOS/Deck
- Xbox games adopt incompatible anticheat
- Xbox games reject Steam features like Family sharing, Steam Input, Remote Play, etc
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Little Chicken
Banned
GHG
Member
Nice! Congrats Xbox and I hope the innovation and hard work pays off!
What innovation?
Topher
Identifies as young
You think Microsoft is doing all that to "support" Steam? No. Every bit of that is because it makes Microsoft more money. Nothing more than that. Same for PlayStation.
MatrixReloaded101
Member
This is exactly why they lose the console war with Sony also.
They gave up on building their community and catering to their fanbase. Everything is just numbers with them and that’s why they haven’t seen the same success like the Xbox 360 era.
Valve treats their audience well which is why their audience will ensure MS fails at this new plan, good luck converting people off steam.
Little Chicken
Banned
Little Chicken
Banned
I hope Tencent create their own PC launcher. There needs to be more competition in the PC space
Regulators can't do that much with a private company if they ever tried.
Bry0
Member
You know it’s a macro-genius name! FACTS!
Astray
Member
Interest rates are going down again, they will soon be able to borrow money at favorable rates.
That typically correlates with expansionary moves like this and the ABK deal. Get ready for another wave of industry consolidation because of this too.
The other thing is, Microsoft is already shedding a lot of costs that are related to Xbox hardware.
Not a chance. Xbox App has a very small share of the PC gaming market. Like I never bothered to uninstall it for years now, but I never opened it up until last week.
So basically all things that happened because Microsoft was in a weak position with past-it IP (that is now largely alleviated)?
Things change with time, and Microsoft is not going to just take it while Valve hoovers up tons of cash on their watch, not when they can try things to stop it. That's simply not how capitalist markets work.
Also I never called them dirty for trying to compete with Valve, you don't have to develop features that benefit your competitor for example, and I am fine with moneyhatting too as long as we call things what they are.
Yep.
These companies see Steam as a source of cash, but they also see opportunity, and they have enough expertise to run and promote a platform.
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GHG
Member
I hope Tencent create their own PC launcher. There needs to be more competition in the PC space
Where's the lack of competition?
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ZehDon
Member
Winning people over to the Xbox PC App is going to be hard for the same reasons Phil suggested Xbox can't prevail in the console space: the incumbent market leader is really, really fucking good.
The Xbox PC App is... fine. But the game update process is terrible, deferring to the Windows store update process which is simply fucking awful, and it lacks most of the major features the Steam app has had for years. This will be the third time they've, effectively, re-booted it - and they're still not achieving parity. The Steam app has taken a hit in the last year or so, with the App adopting the same slow, sluggish UI design that a lot of modern apps have (Everything is laden with simply unnecessary dynamic async processing causing the whole UI to feel worse). They might be able to eventually have a better app experience if Valve begins down the enshitification process, but they still seem years away from beating Steam's user experience... which is where they've been for years.
The Xbox PC App is... fine. But the game update process is terrible, deferring to the Windows store update process which is simply fucking awful, and it lacks most of the major features the Steam app has had for years. This will be the third time they've, effectively, re-booted it - and they're still not achieving parity. The Steam app has taken a hit in the last year or so, with the App adopting the same slow, sluggish UI design that a lot of modern apps have (Everything is laden with simply unnecessary dynamic async processing causing the whole UI to feel worse). They might be able to eventually have a better app experience if Valve begins down the enshitification process, but they still seem years away from beating Steam's user experience... which is where they've been for years.
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Astray
Member
Just do what I do and post pictures of fryers lol.Where's the lack of competition?
Best PC Game Deals - Cheap Steam, GOG, EA, Epic keys
With so many digital stores available, look for the best PC game deals on GG.deals. We compare over 60 stores to select top PC games on sale.
mayham2199
Member
Yea Jez even comments on this. He thinks MS is way to focused on numbers and not thinking about the bigger picture.
Topher
Identifies as young
FTC reviewed and approved the Bethesda acquisition. My understanding it is just a matter of how large an acquisition is being made, not whether it is private or public.
Unknown Soldier
Member
Microsoft looking for a new "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" target but they are going after Steam 20 years too late
It's like watching them trying to introduce Windows Phone a decade late again
It's like watching them trying to introduce Windows Phone a decade late again