Xbox PC app beefs up Steam-competing storefront with hundreds of new games

Microsoft beefs up its PC store competition by adding nearly 400 new games to the Xbox PC app storefront.

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Xbox has quite the PC gaming ecosystem right now. Between Battle.net, the Microsoft Store, the web, and now the Xbox Windows app itself, there are a variety of different ways to buy Xbox-branded games and content on PC. The pressure to expand further onto PC propelled the $70 billion Activision buyout, and this pressure is also fueling Microsoft's ambitious multi-channel market competition plans.

Now we're seeing Microsoft beef up its digital games catalog with a swath of almost 400 titles to be added to the Xbox app. This will further mold the Xbox app into a more cohesive branching point within the ecosystem, brushing up against established launchers like Battle.net and Steam while filling out the content catalog along the way.

"Earlier this summer, we began working with partners to bring all PC games with Xbox features into the Xbox app. We're super excited to see what Xbox games come to Windows PC from game creators in the future and to welcome nearly 400 titles that previously weren't discoverable or purchasable in the Xbox app," Xbox content curation manager Chris Charla said in a recent Microsoft Developer post.

The full list of games added to the app wasn't made available, and the store on the app itself seems not to have been updated with the new titles. But Microsoft did confirm games like Shovel Knight Treasure Trove would be included.

And Play Anywhere is a big part of this push, too. This basically gives you a buy one, get one promo. Buy a Play Anywhere game and you can play it on consoles, PC, or even stream it via the cloud.

"More than 100 of these newly added titles are Xbox Play Anywhere, meaning if players buy the Xbox console version, they can play the Xbox PC version as well (and vice versa)," Charla said.

Microsoft intended to release Android games and microtransactions onto the Xbox app for Android, but recent court decisions have delayed the rollout.