Today during Gamescom, Microsoft announced they have no plans to create a PC gaming distribution platform. With the launch of Windows 10 on July 29th, it is understandable that Microsoft would be under speculation as competition, but they’ll be leaving the PC gamers to Steam.
Microsoft’s Comments at Gamescom
Kevin Unangst, Senior Director for PC gaming at Microsoft gave a comment to PC Gamer at Gamescom describing how Microsoft feels about Steam’s popularity and Microsoft’s intentions.
“We are not intending to compete with Steam,
“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.”
Since Steam has become such a popular necessity to many PC gamers, it’s very wise that Microsoft isn’t going to try to compete with them for the PC game distribution standpoint. Steam features many games from numerous developers, whereas Microsoft would most likely market their own games and not those of their competitors. Unangst continued to go on and discuss how competition is a thriving standpoint for business, and that having Steam run great on Windows 10 is their main goal.
“Over time do we want more developers to come over to our store and offer it in addition to Steam? Absolutely. 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.” – Kevin Unangst, Microsoft
While I do believe Microsoft was sincere in their decision to leave the platform hub to Steam, I wouldn’t be surprised if in the future Microsoft tried to dip their toes in community management and platforms. With Xbox and Windows 10 under their jurisdiction, the experience required has been met.
Do you believe Microsoft will stay true to their word?
