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Xbox.steampowered.com subdomain found

Crayon

Member
I dont know why either microsoft or sony havent made a deal with valve to make their console a steam compatible box yet, it'd be a huge deal to have this.

I'd imagine because that would be legally and bureaucratically complex and nothing but a liability for valve if they failed to stay abreast of what their "partner" was doing at any given time.
 

LewieP

Member
Imagine if Microsoft's insistence that the Xbox One was a Windows 10 device actually meant it could run Windows software like Steam, rather than meaning basically nothing.

I very much doubt this means anything significant, I guess it could mean that Valve and MS reached some kind of deal to sell MS published titles on Steam.
 

deadman69

Member
Why would just want to avoid Universal Apps ?

If you don´t want to use Windows in general I would understand. But just not wanting to use Universal Apps ??

games that are UWP apps have too many restrictions on them compared to your standard game on pc.
 

Nzyme32

Member
It used to redirect to the support page for valve games on Xbox 360. They removed it though some time ago. Now it's back as it seems.

Do you have a source for that. Looking around, I see no reference to one or a reference to xbox.steampowered.com either
 

Buggy Loop

Member
You don't know why closed systems with a single store won't allow someone else to add their own store?

Sony would be the least likely candidate to jump on this, but at this point, for microsoft, its just a tiny step more to actually do this. By allowing your games to be on PC, you might aswell take some of PC's library in no?

You expand your library with another store, you get more buyers, you have more potential buyers of your games.

Valve allowed competitive stores and it only helped them. MS and Sony will soon realize this.
 

fantomena

Member
I don't think it is anything, but if it is something like "Buy on Win 10 Store and get it on Steam too" I would be glad.
 
Until Microsoft shows any movement away from their policy of locking multi-platform multiplayer into their platform (Xbox + Windows 10) or only releasing their PC titles via Windows 10 store, this is literally nothing.

There's another issue too, and that's with how the only way (to my knowledge) that developers can distribute or release an app made with modern APis on the Universal Windows Platform (UWP), rather than an aging Win32 app, is via the Windows Store.

OS X handles this better, since developers can still target all the modern APIs without distributing their app via the App Store, and they can get their app signed/certified by Apple outside of App Store distribution, so theoretically you could obtain all your OS X software outside the App Store and have Gatekeeper switched on (Gatekeeper limits your machine to "trusted" apps).

So there's that -- Steam can only play host to Win32 software, which is alright for games played on desktop computers with a mouse and keyboard, but it restricts the "modern-ness" of the user experience in terms of how the window behaves etc, how it's launched, how it's installed.

--

Maybe this domain is all about integrating these modern apps with a new distribution store, and Xbox app/online play functionality?

Though most likely it'll play out like this: Rather than buy a Win32 version of the game on Steam, which exists separately to the UWP version on the Xbox Windows Store, you'll buy the license to launch the game in the built-in Xbox app, like how buying Ubisoft stuff gets you a Uplay version of the game. Though I can't see that happening until a large enough proportion of Steam users are on Windows 10, since UWP apps and the new APIs haven't been backported to 8.1, let alone 7.
 

Qassim

Member
No, open the steam OS (app?) and have your library run on your PS4 like alienware's alpha.

They are PCs..

So you're saying.. get Windows PC games running on Xbox One and/or PS4? That would be a massive task, especially for the PS4. It's possibly feasible in some ways to get Win32 applications running in a controlled manner on the Xbox One, but it's probably not worth the effort at all for all the problems that would need solving even once you get over that initial technical hurdle.

The Xbox One and PS4 are not PCs. Some of the hardware components have cousins in off-the-shelf PC components, but that does not make them PCs whatsoever. Even if hardware wise they were literally just PCs, software compatibility is a huge, huge, huge hurdle to get over.
 

DopeyFish

Not bitter, just unsweetened
If its anything, its a portal that allows sales of Win10 games in steam environment... Same win10 container and system registration (as it should be) and with its content segregated as it's platform specific.

Probably will load credentials of user logged into OS, to allow cross-buy and cross play.

Obviously there is work to be done to allow custom content somehow through the win10 framework... But if there is anything to this, I'd assume it's an extension of the win10 store and valve gets a cut of sales, but probably doesn't have to handle bandwidth or anything.
 

Buggy Loop

Member
So you're saying.. get Windows PC games running on Xbox One and/or PS4? That would be a massive task, especially for the PS4. It's possibly feasible in some ways to get Win32 applications running in a controlled manner on the Xbox One, but it's probably not worth the effort at all for all the problems that would need solving even once you get over that initial technical hurdle.

The Xbox One and PS4 are not PCs. Some of the components have cousins in off-the-shelf PC components, but that does not make them PCs whatsoever.

Considering linux has been running on ps2 and ps3, weird architectures compared to what linux usually runs on, now PS4 is basically an alienware Alpha, its got PC components.

I really dont think it would require mind blowing developement to make it work.

Probably less effort than MS adding xbox 360 games emulation.
 

gamz

Member
If its anything, its a portal that allows sales of Win10 games in steam environment... Same win10 container and system registration (as it should be) and with its content segregated as it's platform specific.

Probably will load credentials of user logged into OS, to allow cross-buy and cross play.

Obviously there is work to be done to allow custom content somehow through the win10 framework... But if there is anything to this, I'd assume it's an extension of the win10 store and valve gets a cut of sales, but probably doesn't have to handle bandwidth or anything.

Why in the world would Steam do that tho?
 

DopeyFish

Not bitter, just unsweetened
Why in the world would Steam do that tho?

Money is money. And if MS handles shit for their things, the net benefit for steam cements their place as the go-to for windows 10.

Just like how stores sell gift cards for their competitors...they get a cut of it. A win for steam and gives them the inside track, a win for MS as it would give their content high exposure.
 

Harlequin

Member
Rise of the Tomb Raider was developed and published by SE on PC and XBOX. For all intents and purposes, it was a third party release that Microsoft just bank rolled.

The PC version was published my SE but the Xbox versions were actually published by MS.
 

Synth

Member
Valve allowed competitive stores and it only helped them. MS and Sony will soon realize this.

Valve allows other stores to sell Steam games. Yes this has helped Valve, but it's not the same as taking focus away from your own store in favor of Steam. Valve's play with this turned their ecosystem into a standard, which honestly harms any other company looking to create an ecosystem of their own (as MS and EA are), because many people will outright refuse to buy your game if it's not Steam enabled, and if it is, then they'll treat it as a Steam game, and will essentially avoid interacting with your ecosystem.

What Valve has done is super smart... but not to the benefit of other stores/ecosystems really.
 
Uh, guys, this was registered by Valve themselves just before WIN10 was out, officially.

I was thinking it might be something like streaming PC games to the Xbox One like Steam Link.

This is the first and only thing I could think of. Pushing Windows Store/Xbox App would be their main preference if they consider an integrated all-in-one PC storefront going forward, not releasing on steam.

Are they including XBO controllers with Vive as well?

Only Rift, so not yet. No reason not to though. High chances too because VIVE is obviously looking to be more pricey than Rift so a bundle adds value per dollar, both HTC & Valve are open to partnerships, official driver support with wireless dongle and more revenue for MSFT.

No, open the steam OS (app?) and have your library run on your PS4 like alienware's alpha.

They are PCs..


Though this could be done through homebrew, unofficially some years from now, this could mean a whole lot to SONY, the PlayStation division and it's consumerbase. The downside is the chance that the consumers end up using Valve's storefront instead of the PS store, denying that 30% platform royalty for 3rd party purchases that SONY gets. This could be solved though by carefully handpicked releases which are not on PS store or have a chance to release on it in the future, by a team of their 3rd party relations, but unless they get a cut out of it too they won't invest time/resources into it at all. There's a reason why closed ecosystems have a single storefront.
 

Hristi

Member
Maybe the upcoming games are timed exclusives for the W10 appstore? I'll honestly be surprised if they sell their exclusives on steam.
 

LewieP

Member
Considering linux has been running on ps2 and ps3, weird architectures compared to what linux usually runs on, now PS4 is basically an alienware Alpha, its got PC components.

I really dont think it would require mind blowing developement to make it work.

Probably less effort than MS adding xbox 360 games emulation.

Hacker group Fail0verflow (who have a credible track record) have publicly discussed plans to get Linux running on the PS4, in order to play Linux versions of games on Steam on the PS4.

They have demonstrated booting into Linux, but not decent enough performance to run games yet.

They are still working on it, but have said that the remaining technical challenges (including driver stuff) shouldn't be insurmountable.
 

gamz

Member
Maybe the upcoming games are timed exclusives for the W10 appstore? I'll honestly be surprised if they sell their exclusives on steam.

I would too, but then again it would be consistent with their vision of all their other programs such as office.
 

Crayon

Member
What Valve has done is super smart... but not to the benefit of other stores/ecosystems really.

It's a huge benefit to stores and users. Their are stores that exist largely as outlets for steam keys. It drives down and normalizes the prices for users. It's good for everyone except those who wish to rope off users for themselves.
 
Are people doubting that Microsoft will put it's W10 games on Steam? I mean, having games be exclusive to the windows store makes sense...for a month or two; the period when your game is going to sell the most, but after that, there is almost no reason not to shove it on Steam as well.

It takes a minuscule amount of effort to the push the game to Steam after a set time.

Didn't MS publish Ori and State of Decay: YOSE as little as 12 months ago on Steam? Why suddenly stop just because W10 rolls around? They have everything to gain from supporting both stores with their games; especially when one of those stores is the de facto PC gaming marketplace.

I don't think actual living, breathing people who are Microsoft executives are concerned about things like exclusivity, they're interested in revenue, and the enormous statistical evidence of Steam games selling well over long periods makes the whole notion of Windows store exclusivity seem very, very short sighted. Microsoft have proven themselves to be really out of touch when it comes to PC gaming before, but there is almost no obstacle, outside of willful ignorance, which will hurt them from putting their games on more than one store / platform.

They make more money, we get more choice.
 

Synth

Member
It's a huge benefit to stores and users. Their are stores that exist largely as outlets for steam keys. It drives down and normalizes the prices for users. It's good for everyone except those who wish to rope off users for themselves.

By "stores/ecosystems" I meant those that are essentially a combination of the two. If you exist purely as a reseller of other people's services, then Steamkeys are a godsend. That means very little to the likes of EA and MS.. MS especially, as they already have a well established platform of their own, that they'll need to somewhat cannibalise in order to establish a PC presence. The only way you can sell a Steamkey is to also allow Valve to sell the game directly on their storefront, and this will nearly always result in the Steam sale becoming the default purchase destination. So you'll get 100% of the sale of the game from your store... but very few of the sales will likely come from your store, because you've given the buyer little to no reason to ever check your store in favor of Steam. They'll see what Valve is offering every single time they play your game, but they'll never think to check your store out unless they're somehow made aware that you're selling the same thing cheaper atm.

For MS, there's the added complication of Xbox Live as well for crossplay purposes. Currently when playing something like Fable Legends, an Xbox player and a Windows player are indistinguishable... it simply appears that there are more players. However if everyone on PC is pulling the game from Steam instead, then they're likely to use Steam's ecosystem in favor of Live's for much of the standard functionality. PC players will likely chat amongst themselves using Steam chat, arrange parties with Steam invites, etc... creating a segregation between them, and those playing on a console, which lessens the experience on the console side, because what is typically standard Live functionality ceases to universally apply to everyone you play online with at that point.
 

Crayon

Member
/snipped first paragraph, which accurratly described how the steam key deal works/

For MS, there's the added complication of Xbox Live as well for crossplay purposes. Currently when playing something like Fable Legends, an Xbox player and a Windows player are indistinguishable... it simply appears that there are more players. However if everyone on PC is pulling the game from Steam instead, then they're likely to use Steam's ecosystem in favor of Live's for much of the standard functionality. PC players will likely chat amongst themselves using Steam chat, arrange parties with Steam invites, etc... creating a segregation between them, and those playing on a console, which lessens the experience on the console side, because what is typically standard Live functionality ceases to universally apply to everyone you play online with at that point.

Your point of view seems to take for granted that windows 10 and xbox are the defacto standard of the world. Every detriment to the Microsoft Experience you've described here is a side effect of true cross platform strategy that benefits everyone but microsoft. Examples follow:

For MS, there's the added complication of Xbox Live as well for crossplay purposes.

As we know... cross play has been expecially difficult for microsoft to approach, because their focus is generally on excluding competitors. Cross play between windows, mac, linux and even playstation has been a reality for years now. Microsoft has added the comlications with no help from valve.

Currently when playing something like Fable Legends, an Xbox player and a Windows player are indistinguishable... it simply appears that there are more players.

See this is not new at all and microsoft can either greatly... greatly... greatly... increase the amount of fable players by releasing the game on steam. They can even release the game on mac and linux and -easily- achieve cross play between disparate operating systems but they can't have their cake and eat it too. Microsoft chose to build their own and not cede to a competitor.

This conversation started because I perceived you are insinuation that valve's more open approach is somehow to the detriment of someone we care about. I need to know... do you find it to the detriment of ourselves, the users?
 

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
Is this going to be as rad as the sick PSN partnership which only lasted for one game. (Portal 2)

If you're referring to cross-platform play, Valve ultimately decided against that for CS:GO because it didn't want Sony's certification processes needlessly holding up patches on Steam, which is dramatically less an issue with something like Portal 2. If you're referring to console -> PC cross-buy, well, Valve hasn't released a retail game since Portal 2.
 
Who else would register a subdomain on steampowered.com?

It's relevant to the rest of my post and to this response in that Microsoft continues to support rigid policies that intentionally and actively prevent the vast majority of the potential theories that have been thrown around the thread.

The fact that this is coming from Valve doesn't change that, or give any evidence to support that it might change in the near future.
 

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
There's usually a catch with MS, so even if these games end up on Steam, they won't be like normal releases. There'll be some kind of Windows 10 Store integration or something along those lines.

There's no doubt in my mind that Microsoft's Win10 games on Steam will function much like Ubi's Uplay games, with the Xbox App being the actual client the game is linked to.
 

drotahorror

Member
If this is actually anything we'll likely see it implemented with Killer Instinct PC release. Hopefully they're not going to gauge interest with just their W10 store and then based on those figures, go with the steam thing for Quantum Break.

KI should be open to as many PC's as possible. It's already limited to W10 (mistake) and then limiting it to the Windows store would be another mistake. Just my opinion but I'm sure some agree. It's actually not cool at all that KI will likely be W10 and Windows store exclusive. It's like they don't want to sell 2x (speculation) as many copies or more.
 

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
If this is actually anything we'll likely see it implemented with Killer Instinct PC release.

Even though I expect MS to sell its paid games on Steam, I firmly believe its F2P games will remain WinStore-exclusive unless they're in dire need of a shot in the arm. Indeed, Lionhead categorically ruled out a Steam release of Fable Legends and Age of Empries Online didn't appear on Steam until eight months after launch (Valve introduced support for F2P games in June 2011, two months before AoEO went live).
 

Synth

Member
Your point of view seems to take for granted that windows 10 and xbox are the defacto standard of the world. Every detriment to the Microsoft Experience you've described here is a side effect of true cross platform strategy that benefits everyone but microsoft. Examples follow:

I don't assume that Windows 10/Xbox are the defacto standard. In fact, if anything I'm making the opposite suggestion, that if something works with Steam, then Steam automatically becomes the default implementation on PCs.

As we know... cross play has been expecially difficult for microsoft to approach, because their focus is generally on excluding competitors. Cross play between windows, mac, linux and even playstation has been a reality for years now. Microsoft has added the comlications with no help from valve.

See this is not new at all and microsoft can either greatly... greatly... greatly... increase the amount of fable players by releasing the game on steam. They can even release the game on mac and linux and -easily- achieve cross play between disparate operating systems but they can't have their cake and eat it too. Microsoft chose to build their own and not cede to a competitor.

This conversation started because I perceived you are insinuation that valve's more open approach is somehow to the detriment of someone we care about. I need to know... do you find it to the detriment of ourselves, the users?

I am very familiar with past and previous crossplay initiatives. I've been playing crossplay games online since Quake III Arena on Dreamcast. It's very easy to simply dump players from other ecosystems into the same game you're playing, but the seams tend to show in various manners. The various crossplay games between for example PC and PS4 all have their own varying implementations, due to the lack of an actual unified platform for the games to run across. For Street Fighter V, I will be creating a separate Capcom Fighting Network account, which will take care of communications between players of the two differing platforms... however I won't be able to send a direct PSN message to a PS4 player using that when I'm on the PC. I won't know if a friend I made playing SFV also plays Guilty Gear or Mortal Kombat etc.. because only the game is crossplatform, not the service itself.. and for this reason I'm more likely to simply fall back towards Steam and the community I have on there for this game, rather than establish much of sense of community between the players of both platforms. Hell, if I pick up the game on PS4 later, I apparently won't even be able to use the same CFN account on the console. Contrast this to when I play Fable Legends... I never even know if my own brother is playing the game from his Xbox of his PC, and I never need to care. I've made friends on there in the same fashion I would with any other console game. I send messages, party invites, friend requests etc, without ever having to consider whether or not they actually use the Live ecosystem for anything beyond launching the game itself.

So yea, you could definitely say that I perceive such solutions to be to the detriment of some players... not necessarily the PC playerbase (that would likely simply never play the game otherwise), but the existing console userbase I see various ways that current crossplay initiatives are inferior to how MS is currently handling crossplay between Xbox and Windows.. and I honestly don't feel that the expanded userbase is often worth it, much in the way that having 3x times the number of players in Halo wouldn't be better for an Xbox player if the extra 2/3rds were packing m+kb. As things are atm, the crossplay benefits are all positive with none of the caveats that I've been used to experiencing in many crossplay games of the past... and so I'm less concerned that it may not reach everyone it otherwise would have. This is especially important to me if it's likely to become more of a standard over time, and not just a one-off game here and there.
 

Sydle

Member
If this is actually anything we'll likely see it implemented with Killer Instinct PC release. Hopefully they're not going to gauge interest with just their W10 store and then based on those figures, go with the steam thing for Quantum Break.

KI should be open to as many PC's as possible. It's already limited to W10 (mistake) and then limiting it to the Windows store would be another mistake. Just my opinion but I'm sure some agree. It's actually not cool at all that KI will likely be W10 and Windows store exclusive. It's like they don't want to sell 2x (speculation) as many copies or more.

It's not about selling as many games as they can though. It's about getting as many people on Windows 10 as possible and having those folks keep using it for gaming. Big difference.

Partnering with Steam for a Windows Store integration makes sense and would probably be met with a lot of fanfare.
 

Eusis

Member
Keeping expectations low/reasonable:

This will be promotional page highlighting Xbox console exclusives that can be bought on Steam. Stuff like Dead Rising 3, Ryse, Quantum Break, Ori, etc would be highlighted there.
 
But the circumstances today, this news coming in hot just after the news dropped that Microsoft is going to release most of its Xbox games on PC, makes for a different situation.

Not really. There is no advantage for Microsoft to tie its titles to a competitiors ecosystem.

They are already throwing away xbl money away with PC releases of multiplayer titles, I find it very dubious they would put their titles on steam as well. Origin possibly, but not steam.

Only way this means anything is if its some kind of way to tie your steam library to your Xbox gamertag. It would be pretty smart if microsoft had worked out a way to read steam acheievements for multiplatform titles and award them to a ganertag if the game was also an xbox 360/one title.
 

Sydle

Member
Not really. There is no advantage for Microsoft to tie its titles to a competitiors ecosystem.

They are already throwing away xbl money away with PC releases of multiplayer titles, I find it very dubious they would put their titles on steam as well. Origin possibly, but not steam.

Only way this means anything is if its some kind of way to tie your steam library to your Xbox gamertag. It would be pretty smart if microsoft had worked out a way to read steam acheievements for multiplatform titles and award them to a ganertag if the game was also an xbox 360/one title.

If the goal is to get more gamers using Windows 10 then Steam really isn't a competitor, they're a blessing.

You guys stuck on this Xbox versus everyone can't see the big picture. They rolled Xbox into the Windows group to create stronger preference for Windows. If Xbox and Steam work together then they'll effectively lock a ton of gamers into Windows for a long time to come.
 
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