Although the April Fools' video convinced the players, Xbox Not buying Steam anytime soon. Microsoft is known for its purchasing power with Xbox by buying a bevy of developers to add to its Xbox game studio portfolio. Since the launch of the Xbox One in 2014, Microsoft has made notable acquisitions of developers such as Mojang Studios, Ninja Theory, Obsidian Entertainment, and Double Fine. It takes it to the next level when the Xbox Series X/S goes into generation, acquiring major self-contained publishers like Bethesda and Activision.
Steam, meanwhile, remains the largest PC gaming marketplace after 20 years on the market, with 100 million monthly users. Valve's service releases thousands of games on it every year, and remains incredibly popular despite competition from the Epic Games Store. Steam helps its case with frequent game discounts, especially during its major 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.
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Xbox Steam Acquisition Quests Jump During April Fools' Day
Pure Xbox reported on a potential Microsoft acquisition of Steam as an April Fool's joke. Initially, a major April Fool's joke discussed a program titled Xbox Game Pass Flex, a free version of Game Pass that essentially replaces the loading times in Xbox games with full-blown ads. Despite it being just an online prank, it seems like a plausible announcement considering the speculation that Xbox will add ads to Game Pass. It was just a remarkable Xbox joke scored during April Fools' Day.
Google Trends has shown that the top six Xbox-related searches are related to Steam's potential Xbox acquisition. Apparently, the increase in searches came from the TikTok of a user named JacobVB, who posted a video claiming that Microsoft bought Steam for $10 billion. The video, which has garnered 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 consoles and PC. Although one of the video hashtags listed it as a skit, commenters were convinced the skit was real, which explains the uptick in Google searches.
April Fools' Day is prime time for the gaming world to issue fake announcements to unsuspecting gamers everywhere. As usual, wildly popular titles Overwatch and Fortnite Added April Fools Day content to their games this year. These pranks are not limited to developers and publishers, as fans and content creators with a large following will create fake news in the video game world. Jacobweeby's video is just that, and not a valid indicator that Microsoft is making a deal to acquire Steam.
Still, even if Xbox isn't planning a full-blown takeover of Valve's platform, it's understandable why gamers should believe this news. Xbox has previously teased some Steam integration on Xbox platforms, with the ROG Xbox Ally handheld also being compatible with it. Furthermore, recent reports on Microsoft's upcoming Xbox console, Project Helix, indicate that it will be able to play Steam games out of the box. So, while Steam may not be a proper buyout in Xbox's future, this April Fool's video may not be far from what Microsoft plans to offer next-gen.
