Steam is hardly a flawless platform, but preventing Quantum Break from being sold there (or on GOG, or any of the others) will stop a huge number of players from getting the game. Single-handedly rehabilitating games with “Rise of the” as a prefix. I can’t find any reliable numbers for copies of RotTR sold through the Windows Store, but if it’s anywhere near that figure I’d be very surprised indeed. If you want to sell big on PC, Steam is basically impossible to overlook. Rise of the Tomb Raider, which had timed Xbox One exclusivity through a deal with Microsoft, has sold around 470,000 copies on Valve’s store according to SteamSpy figures. The PC version of Remedy’s Alan Wake (release on Steam) made its development cost back within 48 hours. No doubt the studio has received some financial renumeration (read: a fat wad of cash) to make up the inevitable shortfall, but it must be galling to know that so many more people could be playing and enjoying the title when it launches on PC. If I were working for Remedy, I’m not sure how I’d feel about that. Microsoft is actively sacrificing a significant number of sales in the name of pushing its digital shop. Not at all bad for a new OS.īut by keeping it to the Windows Store, the audience will narrow much further. The latest Steam hardware and software survey puts Windows 10 usage at just under 33%.

Microsoft’s insistence on restricting DX12 to their new operating system already reduces a game’s potential audience a considerable amount, though the offer of a (limited) free upgrade for those on 7, 8 and 8.1 seems to have had the desired effect. Quantum Break is going to utilise DirectX 12, so it has to be on Windows 10. Can we pause time long enough to make the Windows 10 Store any good?

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