A spot of jolly cooperation could be on the cards between Valve’s Steam platform and Microsoft Xbox One, as a new discovery implies the two will soon be able to interact via crossplay.
WindowsCentral reports that new beta files added to the Steam Beta Github repository were uncovered before being posted to Resetera, with one line strongly hinting that crossplay is on the cards.
Microsoft/XboxOf the eight new files uploaded yesterday, one makes reference to Steam networking identity and “xbox_pairwise_id”, with many believing this is a clear indicator that Steam will at least soon be able to recognise Xbox Live IDs.
Naturally, this would then lead into the ability for the two platforms to interact with one another via crossplay, something that we know Xbox boss Phil Spencer is well up for, given his push to have Xbox interact with both Nintendo and Sony, as well as a string of PC games.
A couple of titles can already be played between Steam and Xbox of course, but all of the above points to something a little more substantial down the line. Neither Valve or Microsoft has confirmed anything regarding these reports yet, so take everything with a pinch of salt.
All in all, I’d say crossplay between Steam and Xbox is a pretty safe bet though. In an ideal world, we’d be able to download and play Steam games on our Xbox Ones, but that’s just me getting super greedy.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.