PC games on XBOX ONE is not what you think

Steam will never come to consoles. Never, ever.

So I was watching AlphaOmegaSin's video about PC games being able to be streamed to XBOX ONE soon, and he says some bold statements about PC streaming on consoles. Here's the original video.


The big thing he said was "will Sony release a Steam app to compete with XBOX?" The short answer, no. The short reason, competition. Now for the rambling.

A steam app to play steam games will NEVER come to dedicated hardware, plain and simple. Sorry, it just will never happen, because steam is the competition. Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and maybe OUYA/Nvidia all sell games through their online marketplaces. If you have the option to buy a game through steam or the XBOX Live market place, and you get more bang for your buck from Steam and Microsoft gets nothing from the deal, then they're losing a sale and it's not in their best interest to offer that service. Console manufacturers make all their money in game licensing and typically sell the hardware at a loss of close to cost (I think now they're sold with like a 1% mark up, but that's not enough to keep a division alive). We once had consoles where the manufacturers made their profit off hardware, it was the 3DO, and it failed miserably because the consoles were $700 or more alone. It would be the same as Sony adding the XBOX LIVE marketplace to the PS4, or Pepsi delivering Coke in their trucks, or EA selling their games through Steam.

And for you PC elitists that say "nu uh, PC is not in the same league as console gaming," that may be true from a consumer stand point, but to a company that sells videogames through a digital marketplace, anyone who also sells games through a digital marketplace is competition. If you wanted a game and you had the option to either pay $2 for it through steam on sale or through PSN for $20, you're going to get it through steam, and Sony won't make any money off the deal since it's a completely different service. Even Sony and Valve worked out some kind of deal where Valve paid a 3% licensing fee to Sony for every game sold through steam through the PS4 steam app, Valve will just raise the price through Steam for PS4 by 3% to cover the costs. NO, lord Gabben is NOT being "super pro-consumer" because it's cheaper on PC, he's just being a smart business man because valve is making the same on every sale regardless of PC or PS4. You might get something like uplay for Wii U where you can get all your uplay achievements for ubisoft games you bought for Wii U, but you can't buy ubisoft games through the uplay app and all games you bought through uplay can't be played on the Wii U.

And if you're wondering "how are PC games streamed to XBOX ONE?" I'm pretty sure that the PC games that you can stream are the ones available through the Windows store, and only the ones through the windows store. They aren't steam, they aren't GOG, they aren't Amazon games, or any of those services. These are games you buy directly from Microsoft, so as far as Microsoft is concerned they're getting your money one way or another, and they don't care so long as they get it. I think this was mentioned at E3. You won't be able to play steam games, you won't be able to play GOG games, you won't be able to play amazon store games, you will just be able to play Microsoft store games.

Now the last argument you may have is the different video streaming services available on consoles even though you can buy movies and TV shows through XBL and PSN, well that's because the primary objective of XBOX and PlayStation is not to sell movies and TV shows, it's to sell games. Sony and Microsoft want you to buy their hardware so you will buy their software (games). Streaming services like netflix, hulu plus, Amazon Instant Video, and the like were originally added as incentives to get you to buy their hardware over the competition, and it's still the same today (I could get the games I want on either PS4 or XB1, and XB1 has more streaming services I am interested in, I think I'll get an XB1). Now you buy an XBOX 1, Microsoft makes a little money on that, and then you buy the games where they make all their money. If you could buy the games through Steam, then Microsoft only makes a few pennies on the sale of the hardware.

And if you pay close attention, only STREAMING is available on console. On PC you can download Amazon and Vudu videos to your hard drive in addition to streaming, but you can ONLY stream Amazon and Vudu on consoles. You can only download movies and TV shows if you buy them through XBL or PSN. But once again, the XBOX and PlayStation are gaming machines that can stream video. If they let the competition eat into their primary food source, then they're just going to be all the more hungry and eventually starve to death.

Well, this has been Happy Gamer, signing off, and 3rd party game marketplaces will never come to first party hardware.