Tom Warren is a senior editor and author of Notepad, who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years.
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.
I don’t believe this is a simple bug, but more the result of Microsoft’s plans to more closely combine its Xbox and Windows stores. I wrote about this effort in March, when I revealed in Notepad that Microsoft is working with Asus on a Project Kennan handheld. “It’s 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.
This effort also involves enabling Steam and Epic Games Store games to be visible in the Xbox PC app library. Microsoft accidentally revealed mockup images showing Steam games in the Xbox PC library earlier this year, and at the time sources familiar with the company’s plans told me Microsoft was working on an Xbox app update that will show every game you have installed on your PC.
Microsoft has also been working on making the Xbox app the home of PC gaming over the past year, and it has recently started referring to its Xbox PC app as simply “Xbox PC.” This new branding first showed up in Microsoft’s announcement of Gears of War: Reloaded, and a new gameplay trailer for MIO: Memories In Orbit also shows off the Xbox PC branding and logo that we’re going to see whenever Microsoft wants to let PC players know the game is available on its Microsoft Store.
Microsoft is also combining ‘the best of Xbox and Windows together’ for handhelds, in changes that we should see later this year. Microsoft is in desperate need of a response to SteamOS, particularly as PC makers like Lenovo are starting to put SteamOS on their own handheld gaming PCs.
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 big question will be whether Xbox console games will actually be playable on PC, and Microsoft may need to leverage its cloud infrastructure for that unless it has an emulation breakthrough ready to finally make the dream of playing old Xbox games on PC a reality.
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