Valve ‘more than happy’ to help Microsoft bring PC Game Pass to Steam

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft is planning to launch its PC Game Pass service on Steam. According to an interview with PC Gamer, Valve has no plans for an Xbox Game Pass competitor, but that it would be happy to work with Microsoft to bring PC Game Pass to Steam.

I don't think it's necessary for us to build a subscription service of our own.

Microsoft and Valve have talked about bringing PC Game Pass to Steam, but it's early days and may never happen. That is where we are at.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

The 30 percent cut on software sales through Steam could be a sticking point. It's not clear how Valve treats subscription services like PC Game Pass. The basic subscription is the only one that will work on Steam and the only one that will work on Origin.

Microsoft has so far shown no inclination to bring PC Game Pass to Steam. PC Game Pass is exclusive to the Microsoft Store and Windows 10 or Windows 11 PCs, but the software maker started distributing more of its Xbox Game Studios titles through Steam in 2019. If you purchase a new Steam Deck, you can access PC Game Pass on the Linux OS that's pre-installed.

Last year, Microsoft tried to shake up PC gaming by reducing its store cut to just 12 percent. Microsoft has said that it's open to Steam being part of its new Windows 11 app store.