Something strange is going on with Microsoft’s Xbox app on Windows.
Over the past few days, the Xbox PC app has started showing Xbox console games inside the library.
While you can’t install games like the original Alan Wake for Xbox 360, it shows up if you own it as part of the “My PC Games” list inside the Xbox PC app.
This effort also involves enabling Steam and Epic Games Store games to be visible in the Xbox PC app library.
All of these Xbox PC changes and the handheld work means we’re probably close to seeing exactly how Microsoft lists additional games in the Xbox PC app.
The Xbox app from Microsoft is acting strangely on Windows. A few days ago, the Xbox PC app began displaying Xbox games within the library. Even though games like the original Alan Wake for Xbox 360 cannot be installed, they do appear in the Xbox PC app’s “My PC Games” list if you own them.
This isn’t just a bug, in my opinion; rather, it’s a result of Microsoft’s intentions to integrate its Windows and Xbox stores more thoroughly. When I disclosed in Notepad that Microsoft and Asus were collaborating on a Project Kennan handheld in March, I wrote about this endeavor. “It’s a part of a larger effort from Microsoft to unify Windows and Xbox towards a universal library of Xbox and PC games,” I wrote at the time.
As part of this endeavor, games from the Epic Games Store and Steam are also made visible in the Xbox PC app library. Earlier in the year, Microsoft unintentionally leaked mockup images of Steam games in the Xbox PC library. According to people familiar with the company’s plans at the time, Microsoft was developing an Xbox app update that would display all of the games you had installed on your device.
A new gameplay trailer for MIO: Memories In Orbit also features the Xbox PC branding and logo that Microsoft will use whenever it wants to inform PC gamers that the game is available on its Microsoft Store. Over the past year, Microsoft has also been working to make the Xbox app the centerpiece of PC gaming, and it has recently begun referring to its Xbox PC app as simply “Xbox pc\..” This new branding first appeared when Microsoft announced Gears of War: Reloaded.
Later this year, we should expect changes from Microsoft that combine “the best of Xbox and Windows together” for handhelds. Given that PC manufacturers like Lenovo are beginning to install SteamOS on their own portable gaming devices, Microsoft is in dire need of a response to the operating system.
We’re likely going to see exactly how Microsoft adds more games to the Xbox PC app given all of these changes to the Xbox PC and the handheld work. If Microsoft does not have an emulation breakthrough ready to finally make the dream of playing old Xbox games on PC a reality, it may have to use its cloud infrastructure to answer the big question of whether Xbox console games will actually be playable on PC.
