Crossplay has become an interesting point of contention for the industry, with some very popular games and companies advocating for a unified, non-fractured player audience enjoying their games across different media consumption screens, and even gaming platforms. Microsoft has been pushing this kind of capability for some time now, launching their Xbox Play Anywhere initiative which aims to bring PC, Xbox (or both) gamers to parity - acquiring a game on one platform equals having it on both, with all game data being synced.

A new update in the Steam beta update code explicitly refers to Xbox, with an "Xbox_pairwise_id" being present, which could point towards exploration of a future feature. Microsoft adding keyboard and mouse support to their Xbox consoles, news of a new streaming-based console for Microsoft's xCloud efforts, and Steam already offering controller support are some of the little details that could make this a winning bet for both companies.As much as Microsoft would want, they can't push for crossplay alone with their services between Xbox Live and the Windows 10 UWP store - reception, usage, and overall penetration of it in the market is negligible compared to Steam, which practically dominates the PC gaming platform field. A partnership between the two companies would be, in a way, in both companies' best interests: it would give Microsoft access to Steam's vast amounts of gamers that are already sort of "locked in" to the platform due to their library size (and habit, let's face it) while giving Steam an ace in the hole against its competitors (GOG is a different beast, but the EPIC store could start biting Steam, in time).