Gaming

Steam has no plans for a subscription service but is open to Game Pass

Valve would work with Microsoft to bring the popular gaming service to the Steam Deck.

by
Alex Gatewood
February 28, 2022

Image: KnowTechie

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Valve’s Steam Deck has officially launched, and reviewers have been impressed so far. There are still many questions surrounding the device and the platform. Such as, will the company ever add a Game Pass-like subscription service to Steam?

As of right now, it doesn’t look like it. In an interview about the Steam Deck with PC Gamer, reporters asked Valve president Gabe Newell if the company was considering its own subscription option for the future.

Newell says a ‘Steam Pass’ is not something on the company’s radar. But, the company could work with Microsoft to bring Game Pass to the device.

“I don’t think it’s something that we think we need to do ourselves, building a subscription service at this time,” Newell said. “But for their (Microsoft’s) customers, it’s clearly a popular option, and we’d be more than happy to work with them to get that on Steam.”

Microsoft’s Game Pass has become an incredibly popular subscription service over the past few years. The service is available on both Xbox and PC. And, it offers access to hundreds of games to play for a monthly recurring fee.

READ MORE: Steam is coming to some Chromebooks

It would definitely be exciting to see the Game Pass subscription service make its way to the Steam Deck. But that could be pretty complicated. The Steam Deck runs on a Linux-based operating system, making it difficult to even achieve compatibility for most Steam games.

The two companies would have to spend a lot of time working together to make sure Game Pass games worked correctly on the Steam Deck.

Still, it’s something that we could see in the future. The Steam Deck still has a lot of growing to do, even if it’s not adding its own subscription service. And adding Game Pass might be much easier to accomplish after Valve optimizes the Steam Deck.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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