Gears 5 is coming to Steam and it's just the start of Microsoft reaching out to PC gamers

Gears 5 is coming to Steam and Microsoft says it's just the start of a new commitment to making its game offerings better for PC gamers. Xbox boss Phil Spencer wrote an extensive message that sets down several new appeals to the PC gaming crowd, including bringing more games to Steam and setting up a new Xbox Game Pass program that's curated just for PC players.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection's planned arrival on PC was an early announcement in this spirit, Spencer noted on Xbox Wire. Xbox will keep bringing more games to PC via Steam, though Spencer didn't make any big announcements about all first-party Xbox games coming to Steam.

"We will continue to add to the more than 20 Xbox Game Studios titles on Steam, starting with Gears 5 and all Age of Empires I, II & III: Definitive Editions," Spencer said. "We know millions of PC gamers trust Steam as a great source to buy PC games and we’ve heard the feedback that PC gamers would like choice.  We also know that there are other stores on PC, and we are working to enable more choice in which store you can find our Xbox Game Studios titles in the future."

If anybody prefers to buy their games on the Microsoft Store, well, you can keep right on truckin'. With the prerequisite ragging on the Microsoft Store attended to, I've got to admit that the built-in digital storefront for Windows 10 will be a much more tempting home for gaming with Xbox Game Pass for PC. It will be a separate collection from its Xbox One counterpart, giving subscribers access to more than 100 games from publishers like Bethesda, Devolver Digital, and others. All new Xbox Game Studios games will launch on it day-one, and you'll get discounts on games and their DLC in the Microsoft Store if you want to buy them for keeps.

One last technical note: Microsoft is enabling the sale of Win32 apps on the Microsoft Store, which is an older software architecture that's still common for making games. This means many more games will be able to go up for sale on the Microsoft Store soon. Spencer says you can look forward to more PC-related announcements when Xbox takes the stage at E3.

Check out our E3 2019 schedule to make sure you don't miss out on any of the news from Microsoft and beyond. Then watch our latest Release Radar video to see what's big in games and entertainment this week.