[jwcooper]

Microsoft is going the opposite of what you're suggesting. Their games are coming to Steam, Playstation and Switch. Also, their game division isn't exactly thriving right now. They have a ton of studios, but they are not selling hardware very well right now.

The more that time goes on, and the more entrenched steamOS/Proton becomes, they will not have any sort of easy time trying to lock-in to Windows. Even now in the earliest days of steamOS, there is blow-back when a game does not support the Steam Deck (which means Proton).

[pjmlp]

Playstation and Switch, for sure.

Steam, not on detriment of Windows, how can they allow something like SteamOS to put Windows to shame, with their own APIs?

I can bet on them changing that, lets see who's got deeper pockets.

[dehugger]

I would posit that in this scenario it is Valve who has the deeper pockets. It's a privately owned company and not beholden to the whims of a quarterly driven revenue cycle, and it's a matter of life or death for the organization.

In contrast, gaming is essentially a side show for Microsoft. The resources required to push Valve off it's pedestal would have higher returns invested elsewhere.

[brirec]

Most of their biggest games already are on Steam, though!