Xbox GamePass, Microsoft’s “Netflix of video games” that will soon have a level rise after the purchase of Activision Blizzard, could very well be integrated into Steam if Redmond wanted. At least that’s what Gabe Newell, the CEO and founder of Valve, has said.
In a conversation with PC Gamer, Newell, who has the release of the Steam Deck on his hands, said that at Valve they have no plans to create a video game subscription service competitor, but they would be more than happy to integrate Game Pass within Steam itself.
“I don’t think we need to make our own Game Pass”
Gaben explained that he does not believe that something equivalent to Game Pass is something that they have to do at Valve, but he does not rule out integrating Microsoft’s into their platform at all: “It’s clearly a popular choice for their customers, and we’d be more than happy to work with them to get it on Steam.“.
For Microsoft who lives preaching that it doesn’t matter what platform players play on as long as they play their video games, and more so if it’s with Xbox Game Pass, the move would make a lot of sense.
In fact, Microsoft’s Bethesda announced just a few days ago that it would be removing its own PC launcher and moving all of its games to Steam. We are far from the days when Microsoft limited its game offerings to the Windows Store, and given the huge market share of PC gaming that Valve has on PC and the robustness of its platform, a Game Pass there would be fantastic for users. users.
An Xbox Game Pass on Steam would open the door to take advantage of the video game subscription service on Linux
Not only that, but it would open the window to have Xbox Game Pass on Linuxa system on which Valve’s new portable console is based and thanks to Proton and Steam Play we can now run thousands of games for Windows on Linux as if they were native versions.
Newell basically confirmed that Microsoft and Valve are discussing possible integration: “We’ve talked to people over there about this quite a bit. If your customers want it, then you need to figure out how to make it happen. That’s where we’re at.”