Microsoft has been making big moves to combine their resources when it comes to gaming with their announced Play Anywhere program. Play Anywhere is the marriage of Windows 10 PCs and Xbox One home consoles by allowing Windows 10 users to play Xbox One games and vice versa. The PC market is currently dominated by Valve’s Steam platform, which is highlighted by quarterly, crazy sales that only helps to bolster their ever-growing, ever-loyal user base.
According to PCMag, Microsoft will be officially launching the service starting on September 13th in the United States. Polygon reports that there will be an initial launch line-up of twelve titles, all of which Windows 10 users (after a Windows update) will be able to purchase and play, with their progress carrying over to their Xbox One console and vice versa. That means that players can stop a game on their Xbox One, then pick it up and load up their saved game and play on their Windows 10 PC like nothing ever happened. The list of games is short, but promising thus far, with more promised in the future.
- Gears of War 4
- Forza Horizon 3
- ReCore
- Sea of Thieves
- Halo Wars 2
- Scalebound
- Killer Instinct Season 3
- State of Decay 2
- Ark: Survival Evolved
- Cuphead
- We Happy Few
- Crackdown 3
This is exciting for PC gamers who opted not to purchase an Xbox One and will now have access to some of Microsoft’s exclusive offerings, such as Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3, ReCore, Sea of Thieves and more. While it doesn’t look like other game companies will be making similar moves any time soon, this move from Microsoft should set them up for a greater deal of success within the PC market.
If Play Anywhere is able to sway users away from Steam remains to be seen, but Microsoft being a bit more open-minded when it comes to their platforms seems to be a popular decision with gamers and a strategy to make the best use of their resources while Sony’s PlayStation 4 dominates the console market and Steam dominates the PC market.