The Scariest Or Most Interesting Thing About The Microsoft FTC Leak Isn’t The AMD And ARM Stuff Or That It Thought About Buying Nintendo. It Thought About Buying Valve. ▍

Tom’s analysis on the Game Pass situation is pretty interesting and honestly probably the best breakdown of numbers that nobody seems to be talking about. Game Pass is in trouble and Microsoft knows it. It’s one the two saving graces of the Xbox Series consoles with the other being backwards compatibility all the way back the Xbox 360, if not even the original Xbox. Unfortunately for Microsoft the numbers are clear: people prefer to own their games (well, as best you can own them digitally anyway).

In the talk around the Game Pass numbers Microsoft knows they have to bump subscriptions and hard. Tom gets right up to the heart of the issue but I feel like he doesn’t quite see the bigger picture. How would Microsoft goose the numbers on Game Pass? Nintendo is the shiny distraction here while Valve is the real cash cow. But what does Valve own that could interest Microsoft to the point they would want to own them? The answer is simple: Steam¹. Here’s the thing: almost every PC gamer I know buys their games almost exclusively from Steam unless for some reason it just isn’t available there.

Tom asks what Phil Spencer is smoking. I know exactly what Phil Spencer is smoking. Yes, buying studios and publishers allows Microsoft to retain big titles for some kind of exclusivity. That’s expected and unfortunately in the FTC’s eyes, a problem for down the road. That will only get them so far though. Take the studios out of the equation for a moment and tell me: what happens if Microsoft simply controls all the storefronts? You don’t think they’re going to try to goose those Game Pass numbers? Take away the crazy deals Steam is known for and and swap it out for Game Pass. This is one of the scenerios I see, forcing themselves even more on PC gamers that already want nothing to do with them. That’s worse than them buying all the publishers or studios. At least when they own the studio or publisher, they either put it in the Microsoft Store exclusively (where almost no one will buy it) or on Steam (where people will buy it). The options suck but at least this way theres a choice.

What I feel like Microsoft’s end goal could be here is to replicate the Apple/Google app store experience across all of gaming. That works for phones, tablets, and even game consoles but it’s a tough sell on an open platform like the PC.

And we aren’t even getting into the Steam Deck. You know, the sorta kinda hand held PC that runs Windows games on Linux thanks to the Proton compatibility layer that I’m sure Microsoft would love to get their hands on and kill.

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