Microsoft has announced cross-platform compatibility for its own game titles, bringing Xbox Game Studios titles to competing stores outside of the Microsoft Store on PC. This is a hugely welcomed move by Microsoft, and is in line with its ongoing, cross-platform services strategy that has seen the company become more open under Satya Nadella's leadership. More importantly, it is a sharp departure from Microsoft's own Universal Windows Platform strategy, which was the company's strategy to have developers publish Xbox titles only on platforms that supported the UWP.
The immediate benefactor of this move would be Valve's Steam, the online store of choice for most PC gamers. Eventually, the games may also roll out to store such as the Epic Games Store, which also aims to upstage Steam in the PC games front. The earlier strategy of having developers publish only on the UWP meant that Xbox titles could only be introduced on the Microsoft Store, which was criticised by many as monopolistic behaviour from Microsoft. Now, with the opening up of the ecosystem, this effectively puts an end to Microsoft's UWP initiative, which can now be safely deemed as a failure.
Xbox head Phil Spencer described the move, writing in the company's official blog post, "Our intent is to make our Xbox Game Studios PC games available in multiple stores, including our own Microsoft Store on Windows, at their launch. We believe you should have choice in where you buy your PC games. We will continue to add to the more than 20 Xbox Game Studios titles on Steam, starting with Gears 5 and all Age of Empires I, II, and III: Definitive Editions. We know millions of PC gamers trust Steam as a great source to buy PC games and we’ve heard the feedback that PC gamers would like choice."
The new move also fundamentally changes how the Microsoft Store works, which will now support native Win32 games. For reference, games developed on Win32 is what is distributed on PC game stores, and they can now also be published on the Microsoft Store without needing to be rebuilt for UWP. With this move, Microsoft is essentially ending its attempt to set a standard for developers to follow and conform all the games to Microsoft's tune, and instead is opening their own systems up to cross-platform compatibility.
It is also a sharp answer back to Epic Games, which has of late been accused of attempting to sign only exclusive titles, and hence playing the role of the restrictor. To recall, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney had accused Microsoft of anti-competitive practices with UWP, and with the end of UWP and Xbox titles rolling out to PC game stores, Epic finds itself in even more questioning times, as it looks to build its portfolio to take on Steam.
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