The main focus of Microsoft's Xbox division in recent times has been on the launch of the Xbox Series X|S. Obviously, that's not the only part of its gaming business, though.
In 2020, Xbox Game Studios released a bunch of games on Windows as well as Steam. One of the highlights was when Sea of Thieves sailed onto Steam - with concurrent player numbers rising to new records.
It's no surprise then to hear that Microsoft's games, in general, did incredibly well last year on Steam. Valve recently revealed its top 100 games on the platform (as measured by gross revenue), and Microsoft published titles have made the list.
In no particular order, they are Sea of Thieves, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Grounded, and the PC only release, Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition.
Back in August last year, Xbox boss Phil Spencer praised the community for showing "really great" support on PC while at the same time acknowledging the team had more work to do:
"I wanted to thank the community for the support on PC. We made statements like this a few times over the years and the skeptical responses were earned. More work to do but the support we are seeing through @XboxGamePassPC and @Steam team right now is really great, thanks."
Just earlier this week, Valve announced Steam would be adding extended Xbox controller support for PC players.
Did you buy any Xbox Game Studios titles on Steam in 2020? Tell us down below.
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[source store.steampowered.com, via twitter.com]
Comments 16
So pc players support the games more than xbox players?
Nice, Xbox seems to be killing it on steam
@LiterallyDoNotCare
Or more like Xbox players use Game Pass. I don't buy a single game that can be played by GP.
@Justifier so like I said. They paid more, so they support it more. seems like ms will start giving pc guys the exclusives first. They already started with gears tactics and flight sim. I think age of empires too?
Not really a PC gamer so didn't buy any of these games on PC, but I got GamePass ultimate so I would not have to regardless.
Most relevant point is how these games are best sellers despite being in gamepass, that is also on PC. This should hopefully help dismiss that "GamePass is unsustainable" myth. These games still sell a ton, despite GP Subscribers being able to play them at no extra cost.
@LiterallyDoNotCare Age of empires is a PC only game and i really don't see that changing. Flight Sim wasn't possible on consoles before the Series versions. Tactics was again a PC game and it was brought to console afterwards... is it only on next gen again or can you play it on the older hardware? I don't see a trend here other then they are starting to bring games that were once PC only to consoles so it's the exact opposite of what you're saying.
@Justifier @LiterallyDoNotCare PC has Gamepass as well so I don’t see that actually as being the problem.
People like MS games they just don’t want to play them on an Xbox. Ori is a perfect example everyone wanted to play that game on Switch.
Here is an even better example, Cobra Kai as a YouTube TV exclusive barely got watched, but on Netflix it’s driving numbers.
@Krzzystuff Um no. They are wasting resources on pc only games. You are secondary to them. You pay for online too.
@mousieone Doesn't matter if they have gamepass, they support the games more than xbox guys. They will focus on attracting the pc crowd, and trust me, the games pc gamers and console gamers like are different, so something like halo wars and tactics won't make enough on console alone.
@LiterallyDoNotCare i got ultimate so i personally don't but yeah the pay to play online is crud.
Glad they moved to Steam, that's where I've bought Gears 5, Tactics, MCC, AoE 1/2, Ori and Flight Sim. Microsoft realised going multiplat with PC was the way to go 6 years ago when their console was unrecoverable. Now they have a back up if (when) the Series mess consoles come in last.
Will never support gamepass.
I've been heavily supporting Xbox games on the Windows Store, so I'm glad to see that they're doing well on Steam as well.
@LiterallyDoNotCare nowhere in the article it says these games earned more on PC than on Xbox. being beste sellers on PC doesn't mean more support on PC.
you are just assuming this
@demian Yes. I am assuming this. They wouldn't say they sold their games more on pc. They don't even mention general game sales.
@LiterallyDoNotCare the only thing Phil said and that was last summer actually was thanks for the support.
We don't know where do they sell more games or where do they earn more money.
Also pc userbase is much larger than xbox, so sales numbers are not saying much about support.
@demian triple A games mostly sell on consoles.
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