Microsoft and 343 Industries announced the arrival of Halo: The Master Chief Collection for PC earlier this year much to the delight of fans. While the announcement was something that players had been hoping to see for quite some time, a surprise came when the companies also announced the title would be arriving on Steam rather than just the Microsoft store. Now it appears that Microsoft is hoping to continue growing its PC community by bringing Gears 5 and more to Steam

Microsoft recently released a post revealing that the Xbox Game Pass has grown to include quite a lot of content for fans to enjoy and with its success the developers hope to bring that to other platforms as well. The post also mentions that unlike companies who have been making large pushes for exclusives titles such as the recent acquisitions from the Epic Games Store, Microsoft is looking in the opposite direction by hoping to expand their reach across multiple different platforms including Steam.

This move will grant players the ability to choose where and how they want to interact with content while still being able to also benefit from Xbox Live support. To start, games like Gears 5 will be added to the Steam store in the hopes that the company can continue to help the PC gaming community thrive.

“In March, we announced that Halo: The Master Chief Collection will come to PC later this year, launching on Steam in addition to the Microsoft Store on Windows,” said Spencer. “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. 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.”

We want to bring players together to create a shared player community regardless of where they play, so it’s our intent that new Xbox Game Studios titles include features such as voice and text chat, LFG, friends lists and cross-play across PC and console. On Windows 10 you’ll find this functionality in the Xbox Game Bar, which we’ll continue to evolve and expand.”

Gears 5 has yet to receive a release date though it will have a large showcase at this year’s E3 coming up next month.  Let us know your thoughts on the Xbox Game Pass and other first-party games making their way onto PC and Steam in the comments section below. As always, don’t forget to follow Don’t Feed the Gamers on Twitter for 24/7 coverage of all things gaming and entertainment.