Despite what an April Fools’ video may have players believe, Xbox is not buying Steam anytime soon. Microsoft has been known for flexing its purchasing power with Xbox, buying a bevy of developers to add to its Xbox Game Studios portfolio. Since the launch of the Xbox One in 2014, Microsoft has made notable acquisitions of developers like Mojang Studios, Ninja Theory, Obsidian Entertainment, and Double Fine. It would then take this to the next level when moving to the Xbox Series X/S generation, acquiring major self-autonomous publishers such as Bethesda and Activision.
Steam, meanwhile, remains the largest PC gaming marketplace even after 20 years on the market, with over 100 million monthly users. Valve’s service sees thousands of games released on it every year, and remains incredibly popular despite competition from the Epic Games Store. Steam also helps its case with frequent game discounts, especially during its prominent seasonal sales periods. Valve has also expanded its reach with the release of the Steam Deck handheld in 2022, allowing gamers to enjoy their vast libraries of games on the go.
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Xbox Steam Acquisition Searches Jump In Wake of April Fools’ Day
Pure Xbox reported on an April Fools’ joke about a potential Microsoft acquisition of Steam. Initially, a prominent April Fools’ joke discussed a program titled Xbox Game Pass Flex, a free version of Game Pass that essentially replaces loading times in Xbox games with full-blown advertisements. Despite it being a mere online prank, it seemed like a plausible announcement considering the speculation about Xbox adding advertisements to Game Pass. It turned out this was merely one noteworthy Xbox joke making the rounds during April Fools’ Day.
Google Trends showed that the top six Xbox-related searches relate to a potential Xbox acquisition of Steam. Evidently, the uptick in searches comes from a TikTok from a user named jacobweeby, who posted a video claiming that Microsoft purchased Steam for $10 billion. The video, which has racked up over 850,000 views and over 75,000 likes in less than 24 hours, mentions that Xbox plans to combine with Steam to create a unified library across console and PC. Despite one of the video hashtags listing it as a skit, commenters were very convinced the skit was real, which likely explains the uptick in Google searches.
April Fools’ Day is a prime time for the gaming world to unleash fake announcements onto unsuspecting gamers everywhere. As usual, wildly popular titles as Overwatch and Fortnite added April Fools’ Day content to their games this year. These jokes are not limited to developers and publishers either, as fans and content creators with large followings will create fake news in the video game world. Jacobweeby’s video is just that, and is not a legitimate indicator that Microsoft is making a deal to acquire Steam.
Still, even if Xbox is not planning a full-blown acquisition of Valve’s platform, it’s fair to understand why gamers would believe this news. Xbox has previously teased some Steam integration into Xbox platforms, to the point where the ROG Xbox Ally handheld is even compatible with it. Furthermore, current reports on Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox console, Project Helix, indicate that it will be able to play Steam games out of the box. Thus, while a proper buyout of Steam is likely not in Xbox’s future, this April Fools’ video may not be far off from what Microsoft is planning to offer in the next generation.
