Xbox Game Pass could come to Steam, says Valve’s Gabe Newell
Merging two PC superpowers!
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Valve president Gabe Newell has said that he’s open to working withMicrosoftto getGame PassontoSteam, while also confirming that the company isn’t currently interested in a competing service.
The news of the potential partnership came from Newell himself. With theSteam Deck getting into the hands of players, the Valve president has been taking interviews. Speaking toPC Gamer, when asked if there is some kind ofSteamequivalent to Game Pass on the horizon, or if he’d work with Microsoft to bring over GamePass, he said:
“I don’t think it’s something that we think we need to do ourselves, building a subscription service at this time. 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."
This could be an intensely exciting option for Steam players, especially if games on Game Pass were compatible with the Steam Deck. Having that service on the move, while holding the processing power in your hands is a mouth-watering prospect.
In fact, it’s something Newell has said they’ve talked to Microsoft about. When asked about bringing Game Pass to Steam Deck he said: “We’ve talked to people there quite a bit about that topic. If your customers want it, then you should figure out how to make it happen. That’s where we’re at.”
Now, it’s not clear if this is purely about Game Pass on Steam or if a third-party app would be added to the device. Regardless, the prospect is tantalizing. Game Pass on the move, not through cloud streaming, is a very exciting prospect.
Valve’s growing collaboration
Valve has been a company open to collaboration with services from third parties in recent years. Back in August, it was announced that the company wasteaming up with EA to bring EA Play to Steam. This could act as a perfect blueprint to how Game Pass would work.
Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.
Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.
Of course,EA Play is bundled with Game Pass now too, so having Game Pass on the service would likely tie the two services together for Steam users.
EA Play has seemingly been a successful addition to Steam. Especially for games likeApex Legends, which according toSteam Charts, is a top 5 most played game on Valve’s service.
Steam and Microsoft have also been working together a lot more recently. Games likeHalo Infinite,Forza Horizon 5, andPsychonauts 2are all available on Steam. Seeing Game Pass come to the service would be a natural fit.
The question remains though, is Xbox willing to cede their Xbox app on PC and share the Game Pass access points on the platform? We will have to see about that.
Here are some Game Pass deals from across the web:
Patrick Dane is TechRadar Gaming’s Guides Editor. With nearly a decade in the games press, he’s been a consistent voice in the industry. He’s written for a plethora of major publications and travelled the world doing it. He also has a deep passion for games as a service and their potential to tell evolving stories. To wit, he has over 2000 hours in Destiny 2, over 1000 in Overwatch and is now deeply into Valorant.
Black Friday Xbox deals 2024: early offerings are beginning to appear at retailers
Where to buy the new Xbox Series X and S consoles - including the gorgeous Galaxy Black 2TB machine
Watch out, Nvidia - new benchmarks suggest Apple M4 Ultra could beat the mighty RTX 4090
