Why the hell did I just get an achievement? I haven't even touched a game today.
I think it's a fair point to say that we have no evidence that they're working on revamping the store. But if they're revamping the store from the ground up, you wouldn't see it in the form of updates to the existing store. In fact, the scant updates to the existing PC app are arguably an indication that they've de-emphasized development of the PC app in favor of a separate solution. (This is all speculative, obviously.)
As an aside, it's funny to hear everyone's perspective on Xbox's console vs. PC focus. Console players bitch and moan about how Xbox isn't supporting them enough because they're not forcing certain PC titles to release day-and-date on console. The PC players, OTOH, bitch that Xbox is ignoring their needs and only cares about console. Just goes to show how our worldview is shaped by our perspective.
My understanding is that the biggest issue that the existing store faces is that it wasn't built for PC gaming, and was instead built for UWP apps like the iOS App Store, with the idea that Windows tablets / convertibles would function like iOS devices, and that this is why they can't "just do what Steam does" with the current store.
Putting PCGP on Steam is an absolute non-starter, IMO. You think Steam is going to shoulder all the overhead and expense of administering the Game Pass library without taking their 30% pound of flesh? No chance. And Microsoft certainly isn't going to give away 30% of their Game Pass revenue. Remember, MS' costs are fixed. So if they currently make $10 profit on every $100 annual PC Game Pass sub, giving Valve 30% of revenue would take them from a $10 profit to a $20 loss. It simply doesn't make sense, and certainly not when you're the market leader in the subscription gaming space. It's WAY cheaper to just sort your PC app issues. [Counterpoint: Consider whether they might make "Steam Support" a benefit of Game Pass Ultimate, essentially requiring PC players to pay $180 annually instead of $120. That would put MS at a net $126/sub for Steam users, netting them a minor increase in revenue for those players.]
And while purchases from the Microsoft Store currently aren't going to be material due to availability of games on Steam, Microsoft is contemplating a world where a material population of gamers is primarily gaming via Game Pass. Once you have people who mostly play via Game Pass, I don't think it's out-of-the-question to think that they might prefer to stay in the ecosystem for other purchased content. And that's going to be especially true if/when streaming starts to mature.
I think that's the big point of all of this. When you're running a billion-dollar business you have to be simultaneously planning for tomorrow, next year, and five years from now. You have to take different actions to address your goals within those different timeframes. Shoring up the PC experience should be part of a long-term plan to make the Xbox ecosystem something people want to spend time in rather than a necessary evil required to enjoy Game Pass benefits.
I feel like we'd hear
something, though. We'd get more PC-specific communication, maybe a roadmap, or always some juicy leaks. But it's been just about as quiet as it was when they were trying to get people to use the Windows Store.
In my opinion, the case of PC Gamepass getting more games than console is just down to the nature of the market. There are a lot of games on PC from very small developers that don't have the means to publish on console, and also don't have any existing contracts that'd cause a hang-up on signing a Gamepass deal in the way a larger company like Square Enix might. Plus, like... Don't fuckin' tell me y'all are jonesing to play
Shenzhen I/O on your Xbox. I'm confident that like, almost all of the PC-only games on Gamepass would not interest anyone who primarily plays on console. In any case, I'm pretty sure Xbox would mandate PC Gamepass games getting ports to Xbox if they could get away with it, the same way they do vice versa. But the solution to that would likely cut into their bottom line, since it'd mean getting rid of licensing fees to publish on Xbox or whatever.
When I brought up Steam, I wasn't saying to put PCGP
on Steam. This is a PC gaming thing, you can set up any game you want, or any
program you want, to be launched through Steam. This causes the game to launch with Steam's overlay hooked into it, and lets you get a lot of convenient features added to any game you own on any storefront. Any game except PCGP games, which are locked down and you can't do that with, even though they did a thing to make them less locked down already. You also can't point any other programs to PCGP games like you can with normal games. The barebones nature of Xbox's PC gaming service is only a problem because you have no way to work around that like you could anywhere else. It isn't
quite flipping a switch, but it's a very simple thing that they absolutely are in a position to change right now, that could eliminate a ton of work and address a billion complaints.
Like, imagine you're playing Halo Infinite on your Xbox Series X, and you like playing with a third-party Xbox controller. But because you're playing it through Gamepass, you just can't use that controller. And Quick Resume is locked out. You have to buy the game to get a different version with that functionality. And all it would take for both versions to be the same is Microsoft putting in a
tiny bit more effort into the service that they expect you to pay a subscription for. That is the problem with PC Gamepass, you don't get to use the same peripherals or have the same functionality as a game you spend money on elsewhere, and it would take so little just for it to work like you expect it to.
careers.microsoft.com
