Are we on the verge of a real revolution in PC gaming? Microsoft would have us believe so.
The improbable success of the Steam platform took Microsoft completely by surprise, even though the American firm didn't believe at all in the possibility - back in 2004 - of turning gamers away from physical media. Since then, of course, water has flowed under the bridge and, on the contrary, Microsoft is now one of the most active players on the game streaming market, and its Xbox Game Pass solution is extremely popular with PC gamers, who can enjoy numerous games - in limited time - at lower cost. However, this does not resolve the fact that the communities built around certain platforms completely elude it, and this is perhaps one of the reasons why Microsoft has decided to overhaul its Xbox PC App.
The Xbox PC App interface is still evolving © Microsoft
The application, which already acts as a central connection point for PC gamers, obviously can't compare with the wealth of content offered by Steam or the integration with Blizzard titles enabled by Battle.net. There's still a lot of work to be done, but it's clear that Microsoft is determined to do the right thing, and ina lengthy press release published on Xbox Wire, Microsoft details its ambitions for this Xbox PC App, which should, quite simply, eventually enable the aggregation of all existing PC platforms, i.e. Battle.net and Steam, for example, as well as Epic Games Store, Origin and Ubi Connect.
The press release makes this very clear: " Thanks to the aggregated games library, gamers can easily launch games from Xbox, Game Pass, Battle.net and other leading PC stores from a single library in the Xbox PC application ". For the time being, this is more of a declaration of intent, and the revamped application is only available, in beta, to very few PC gamers: subscribers to Microsoft's Inside program. The company is certainly taking advantage of these users to gather feedback and improve its application before a larger-scale test is scheduled... one day perhaps. After the $70 billion takeover of Activision-Blizzard and with the forthcoming launch of new ASUS consoles under the Xbox brand, Mirosoft is showing that, for it, video games are a very serious business!
