Valve CEO Gabe Newell is open to Microsoft launching its PC Game Pass service on Steam. In an interview with PC Gamer, Newell says Valve has no plans for an Xbox Game Pass competitor, however that it will be glad to work with Microsoft to deliver PC Game Pass to Steam.

“I don’t think it’s something that we think we need to do ourselves, building a subscription service at this time,” Newell mentioned. “But for their customers it’s clearly a popular option, and we’d be more than happy to work with them to get that on Steam.”

Microsoft and Valve have held discussions about bringing PC Game Pass to Steam, but it surely’s clearly early days and should by no means occur. “We’ve talked to people there quite a bit about that topic,” says Newell. “If your customers want it, then you should figure out how to make it happen. That’s where we’re at.”

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

A sticking level might be Valve’s 30 p.c lower on software program gross sales by way of Steam. Valve relaxes this to twenty p.c for gross sales after $50 million, but it surely’s not clear the way it treats subscription providers like PC Game Pass. EA Play launched on Steam in 2020, however solely the fundamental subscription is on the market and EA Play Pro remains to be unique to EA’s Origin launcher.

Microsoft has up to now proven no indicators that it’s prepared to deliver PC Game Pass to Steam, although. The software program maker began distributing extra of its Xbox Game Studios titles by way of Steam in 2019, however PC Game Pass stays unique to the Microsoft Store and Windows 10 or Windows 11 PCs. That means if you buy a brand new Steam Deck, you possibly can’t entry PC Game Pass on the Linux OS that’s preinstalled.

Microsoft additionally tried to shake up PC gaming final 12 months by lowering its Windows retailer lower to simply 12 p.c. Steam nonetheless dominates PC gaming, and Microsoft has mentioned it’s open to Steam being a part of its new Windows 11 app retailer.