Microsoft’s history of PC gaming is relatively murky. If the American company has always been represented with prestigious licenses, certain decisions of the past have frightened developers and gamers. However, over the past few years the company has worked to correct this and strive to provide a satisfactory experience for everyone. In line with his previous initiatives, Microsoft announced today that it will reduce its margin on the Microsoft Store for PC games from 30% to 12%.
Microsoft delivers more revenue to game manufacturers
In the past few months, Microsoft has gone to great lengths to meet PC gaming expectations. Granted, their positioning is far from perfect, but we need to see how far they have come. In 24 months, Xbox will bring the Xbox Game Pass to the PC, recently enriching it with EA Play and Cloud Gaming in the beta version and equipping it with games specially developed for the PC, such as: B. Gears Tactics or Microsoft Flight Simulator.
However, gamers and developers alike expected more from the computer giant. That’s why Matt Booty is sending a strong message to the entire industry today by announcing the increase in sales that game developers will see in the Microsoft Store. From August 1st you will get back 88% of the sales price compared to 70% previously.
It’s the developers who enable us to offer great games to our players, and we want them to thrive on our platforms. That’s why we’re announcing today that we’re updating the Microsoft Store Terms of Service for PC Developers.
Matt Booty, responsible for Xbox Game Studios
The goal for Microsoft is to compete more seriously on Steam. The Valve business is indeed at the heart of many complaints from developers as the latter keep 30% of the prices displayed in the store. An inordinately high percentage, according to professionals who believe Valve is doing nothing to deserve it. Especially since the Epic Game Store already offers 88% compensation.
This Microsoft alignment should therefore put pressure on Steam. Above all, it should open the door to new games and experiences so that more and more players and games are available in the Microsoft Store. Developers can offer this “more games for more players and thus greater commercial success “ souligne Matt Booty.
Go on and on
However, if Microsoft intends to carve a bigger slice of the pie, the company will continue to make its games available on Steam. Xbox Game Studios titles are a hit in the service and regularly hit the top charts when they are released. Sea of thieves, Forza Horizon 4 or even that MasterChief Collection is irrefutable evidence, especially since the latter has just passed the milestone of 10 million PC gamers.
At the same time, the Xbox Game Pass obviously remains at the heart of the Xbox PC offering. The service is growing steadily and since the beginning of the year more than 100 games have been added to the catalog. This will continue with the arrival in 2021, specifically Halo Infinite Day One on duty and compatible with cloud gaming. This enables the Halo experience to be offered to all players, including those whose machine cannot natively run the game.
Of course, Xbox development on PC won’t just affect gamers and services. Microsoft must continue to support developers with diverse backgrounds and provide them with special support in addition to their compensation. That’s what Matt Booty wants to commit to.
We pride ourselves on empowering developers to realize their visions to deliver exceptional PC experiences. DirectX 12 Ultimate is available on both the Xbox Series X | S as well as available on the PC. We recently announced the DirectX 12 Agility Development Kit. This is a sign of incredible graphics experiences like ray tracing for more and more PC gamers. The Auto HDR technology we’ve been working on for Xbox is coming to PC soon. It is currently in the testing phase with more than 1000 DirectX games. Xbox’s DirectStorage technology will also be available for PCs, further reducing load times and providing larger, more detailed worlds.
Future changes?
With this speech, Microsoft wants to send a clear message to the various players in video games. Like what Phil Spencer was able to accomplish with Xbox, now is the time for the company to speak clearly and reassure the industry that it is there and that is to be expected.
Additionally, while unofficial, the Microsoft Store is also at the heart of a major overhaul project. This has been rumored by several journalists whose reliability can no longer be proven. This will help better showcase games and developer offerings while welcoming and strengthening player engagement.
2021 promises to get rich and should be critical to Microsoft’s PC gaming strategy. The changes that have been made are definitely far-reaching and are a step in the right direction. The intention is there, it remains to judge its implementation.
We know we still have a lot to do, but feedback from PC gamers and developers gives us confidence that we are heading in the right direction for the community with the investments we have made. We’ve never been in a better position to deliver the best for those who play on PC: Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda are developing content for PC and Xbox. Windows and DirectX teams are developing technology to help developers and provide features that gamers can use to take advantage of Xbox Game Pass for PC, which caters to games for all types of gamers and ensures that new titles are released by Xbox Game Studios on the day of their release can be discovered. The Xbox application such as the Xbox Game Bar is evolving.
