While Epic is fracturing the community, Steam may be implementing Xbox Xplay

Source: https://gearnuke.com/latest-steam-beta-update-source-code-xbox-crossplay-api/

Probably only bad news for the Windows 10 store, but this is great news for me. There are a few games I'd like to play with my friends who prefer the Xbox platform

Hopefully they include the Game Pass cause I'm not paying full price on the W10 store just to play few MS games.

I knew buying Valve would never happen, even if both companies HQ's aren't far from each other and Gabe once a MS employee. But the Windows store just can't compete with Steam, but I couldn't even fathom what would happen if MS even just owned Steam, let alone Valve.

I am so down for Steam Crossplay, and implement Steam as the new Win10 store, like merge them. Even if just a deal and no one buys anyone.

Good thing Epic is shaking things. Steam really needs the competition.

If it means crossplay without the god awful Windows 10 Store I'm all for it.

Very good if fighting games can use it. Communities largely dead on PC.

Not sure if Steam could be considered a community.... Maybe the forums.

Competition is good though. Is this the same Epic that made Duke Nukem Forever?

Steam's chat is now basically Discord. It has tons of community features, art, guides, screenshots, vidoes, groups etc...

Generally has more community features than consoles. I know friends met through it who have sent 3DS''. 980GTX etc... through the mail.

This is something it's competitors seem to miss completely. Segmenting "hot games", that's just going to annoy the shit out of people and make them resent it, just as they did with Origin. PC is not a console and that shit, including dumb advertisements simply will not work.

Valve as a company was built through a community, hiring modders, supporting them, opening their games up. This extends years in advance with features like the Steam Controller designed around community customization.

They became firmly entrenched through this ethos. Something Epic abandoned years ago in favour of consoles, recently abandoning Unreal, not even opening it to the idea of the community finishing it. Because mod teams have never proven to be highly successful at MP games.

I wish I can uninstall anything XBox from my PCs and laptop. ;)

I dont like this whole "digital stores exclusives" thing that PC gaming is heading towards. Thats not good for consumers and beats the entire point of having competition.

Plus the fact that games are more expensive on the W10 store than any other store out there.

Pay more to get less :/

Exactly this. Resentment is also the only thing I have for this.

I have no problems with multiple digital stores offering the same games, thats the perfect situation for consumers. But when they sidestep this by forcing exclusivity and maintaining price monopoly, then whats the ******** point anymore?

I know Epic is not the only who did this, MS, UBI, Blizzard have done this including Steam but those were mostly triple A, **** them, they were too damn expensive to buy on launch day anyway(plus you know a boatload of "content packs" and DLCs are already lined up BUT ****KING INDIES?! HOW do indie devs think that limiting accessibility to their already niche game a good thing? HOW IS THE THOUGHT PROCESS LIKE? Its just amazing.

I just hope to see the MS games running on Win7.

Yeah, that'd be great. W10 exclusivity is the only reason why I haven't played Forza and Sea of Thieves yet.

How times have changed. The same Epic Games used to say this:

Tim Sweeney: Gabe Newell is 'the smartest person in the PC industry'

Now they are doing the same thing, pretty much.

This is the beauty of competition.

To me, it's a software dongle for certain games, just like the other clients. ;)

I didn't say Steam was a community. I said Epic is fracturing the PC gaming community.

(not saying either of you claimed the following vvv - I'm responding to sentiments others have said in the various threads on this topic)

I like how people think this update is because of Epic. I find it highly unlikely they just slapped this (and whatever agreements with MS it must entail) together since Epic's surprise reveal.

I also don't see how 3rd party digital store exclusives on one platform (PC) are a consumer friendly thing - or why GoG, which has an enormous indie library, doesn't count as a competitive alternative venue for indies. Seems to me the only actual competition Steam has right now is, in fact, not Epic (with... 15 store items; 16 if you count Epic's own unsupported UT venture and an explicit opposition to community input) - and GoG (despite their toxic tweeter) is certainly more consumer friendly than this.

@ironbrigador: While I agree that exclusives are an inconvenience I don't think the having them on a free service on an open platform like PC is the much of a problem. Business need to create need and exclusives are a legitimate way of doing so. I don't see it as a predatory thing.

All of these Steam competitors don't seem to get why people like to use Steam. There is a reason why Steam is basically the face of PC gaming, it's because it's the only platform that surpasses let alone come close to offering several features all in one place like PSN and Xbox Live. Valve is the only company that actually put in the effort to make PC gaming more accessible and appealing. All these Steam competitors do is the bare minimum because they don't really care about PC gaming as a whole and just want to maximize their profits for their first party games and get some 3rd party game sales. Even if people buy games from their store it's usually begrudgingly and the first thing they'll do after installing is get the Steam Overlay to work on it.

Origin despite being around for years still doesn't offer anywhere near the amount of features Steam has the only things they had going was better customer service and free games but they stopped giving out free games. None of these Steam competitors having something comparable to Big Picture Mode or even a music player FFS. GOG is really the only one that can get away with a lack of features because they sell games completely DRM free. Steam in a way also reduced the amount of clients and launchers we had to use since in the past we'd have to make an account for almost every game but with Steamworks devs could integrate their games into the Steam network saving players the hassle plus having standard features such as anti-cheat and access from any PC. Even if games still had their own client/launcher most of them would allow you to link your Steam account with it. Steam is also one of the least annoying and intrusive forms of DRM unlike things such as always online DRM and Denuvo. All these services Steam offers makes you forget it is a DRM and even then it is the least intrusive type still allowing people to play their games offline nor needing constant internet connection checkups.

Like Uninspiredcup has said Steam has implemented many features that is even more than what the console networks offer. These Steam competitors think that by simply locking some popular/AAA games to their store they'll be able to pull in millions of users to compete with Steam when in reality people will only buy just that game they want and go back to Steam for everything else or in fact just ignore that game all together. For example Bethesda's Fallout 76 is a good example Bethesda knew that their game would be total garbage which is why launching it on their store would be able to keep people from mass refunding when they realize it is garbage within minutes of playing it. These indie devs don't seem to realize it either, all they're thinking about is the possible visibility they'll get from being on a new landscape but if that were the case Xantufrog has said indies should be flocking in droves to GOG. Until proven otherwise I believe the overwhelming majority of people are not going to use the Epic Games Launcher outside of Fortnite or whatever game they give out for free because the Epic Game Launcher simply has nowhere near the amount of consumer features that would make it appealing for people to want to even 1/4th way switch from Steam. That is also part of how Epic is screwing up with being a competitor to Steam they're only thinking about how to be more appealing to devs and not gamers as well. The Epic launcher runs like shit and the UI is inaccessible.

I don't see Epic fracturing the community. I see them sending ninjas to Steam headquarters and silently impaling their employees through the neck. Perhaps even bringing down the dungeon boss himself... Gabe.