Microsoft Game Pass Could Be Coming To Steam Deck
Valve is making waves in the gaming industry, as the Steam Deck is taking handheld gaming on the move could be a possible contender to the Nintendo Switch. While people once wrote off the idea of the Portal developer releasing its own console, the Steam Deck is now proving its critics wrong.
By the sounds of it, the Steam Deck is already playing pretty well, with the promise that nearly any PC game should be able to run on the go. We've already seen Valve overlord Gabe Newell hand-delivering the Steam Deck, and further proving he's invested in his own product, he's expanding on what he sees for the future of the Steam Deck.
Will Game Pass Come To The Steam Deck?
Speaking to PC Gamer, Newell explained that while the console won’t work on its own version of the Xbox Game Pass, he’s more than happy to welcome Microsoft's subscription service to the Steam Deck. "I don't think it's something that we think we need to do ourselves, building a subscription service at this time," said Newell.
Even though Game Pass currently runs out of its own app instead of via Steam, Newell teased a collaboration could on the horizon. "For their customers it's clearly a popular option," continued Newell, "And we'd be more than happy to work with them to get that on Steam."
The news comes just after the Microsoft-owned Bethesda has ditched its own launcher to sell games via Steam. It's true that EA Play also abandoned its own ship to join Steam in 2020, however, PC Gamer notes that Game Pass releases different versions of its games to what is on Steam, which can lead to issues.
What's Next For Steam Deck?
It doesn't sound like we're suddenly going to get Game Pass on Steam Deck, but at least Newell is open to this moving forward. Steam is a goliath of the PC world, and although Microsoft encompasses both console and PC, it's the console-based Game Pass that's been seeing the Xbox Series fly off shelves. Valve just added a new section that lets you check which games will be compatible with Steam Deck, so it's clear a lot of work is going into the punchy little handheld.
On paper, Valve and AMD could theoretically add Windows drivers and run Game Pass as you would on a Windows PC, but it sounds a little more complicated than that. Previously, Newell pushed back on closed-platform releases (we're looking at you Sony) and said that PC's openness is its "superpower". Just imagine what things would be like with a Day One release of The Elder Scrolls 6 on Steam Deck.