What you need to know
- Valve President Gabe Newell spoke about the possibility of Microsoft's PC Game Pass coming to Steam in a recent interview.
- Newell says that Valve would be "more than happy" to work with Microsoft to get PC Game Pass onto Steam.
- Valve and Microsoft have had discussions about the possibility of having PC Game Pass on Steam, according to Newell.
Microsoft's PC Game Pass has a growing collection of the best PC games. While PC Game Pass has its fans, it is currently limited to the Microsoft Store. That could change, however, if Valve President Gabe Newell had his way.
In a recent interview with PC Gamer, Newell was asked if Valve would look into its own game subscription service. He explained that while Valve doesn't have any plans to make a PC Game Pass competitor, it would be open to having Microsoft's subscription service on its platform.
"I don't think it's something that we think we need to do ourselves, building a subscription service at this time," said Newell. "But for their customers it's clearly a popular option, and we'd be more than happy to work with them to get that on Steam."
Some discussions have already occurred between Microsoft and Valve, though they appear to be in early stages and may not materialize in PC Game Pass coming to Steam.
"We've talked to people there quite a bit about that topic," said Newell. "If your customers want it, then you should figure out how to make it happen. That's where we're at."
EA Play, another gaming subscription service, is already available through Steam, but there are limitations. EA Play Pro is only available through EA's Origin Launcher, leaving only the basic version of EA Play as an option through Steam.
Having PC Game Pass work with Steam could also be complicated because different versions of games appear in the Microsoft Store and through Steam. The differing versions of games on Steam and the Microsoft Store came up in our senior editor Jez Corden's piece arguing that PC Game Pass is not good enough.
As is the case with most decisions, money would also be a factor in where Microsoft decides to put PC Game Pass. Valve takes a 30 percent cut on software sales through Steam, though that rate can drop to 20 percent after $50 million worth of sales. Microsoft and Valve would both need to be happy with the financial elements of bringing PC Game Pass to Steam before such a move could happen.
