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For gamers who split their time between a console, a gaming laptop, and a handheld, Xbox Play Anywhere is a dream come true. Buy a game once, play it on your Xbox, your Windows PC, and (if the stars align) a portable device. Progress carries over seamlessly. No second purchases. No starting over.
But here’s the problem: developers have never really bought into it.
Now, according to a new report from industry insider Moore’s Law Is Dead, Microsoft is so eager to turn the tide that it’s offering a bigger slice of the pie to studios that sign up. The company appears willing to sacrifice its own profit margins just to get more games into its Play Anywhere ecosystem.
🎮 What’s changing? A sweeter deal for developers
The core of Microsoft’s new approach is financial. According to Moore’s Law Is Dead, studios that support Xbox Play Anywhere will now receive a higher revenue share for the first million dollars in sales made through the Windows Store. That’s a meaningful sweetener, especially for smaller and mid-sized teams.
The timing isn’t accidental. With ROG Xbox Ally sales reportedly flat, Microsoft is pushing hard to get developers to optimise their titles for Windows handhelds. The company wants Play Anywhere games to run acceptably on lower-powered devices—not a guaranteed outcome, but an ideal worth chasing.
For context, sales of the ROG Xbox Ally have cooled significantly after a strong launch. Circana analyst Matt Piscatella noted on a podcast that the device “had a nice month one” but “has come back down quite significantly since then.” Meanwhile, the Steam Deck continues to dominate, with Valve having sold an estimated 4 million units as of early 2025.
🧠 The real motive: winning the storefront war
Moore’s Law Is Dead believes there’s an ulterior motive behind the revenue-sharing shift. After talking with studios, the YouTuber argues that Microsoft’s real goal isn’t just about convenience—it’s about luring publishers away from Steam and the PlayStation Store.
Many creators remain hesitant to publish their projects on the Windows Store. Instead, they gravitate toward Steam, which has a massive built-in following. The PS Store is also widely seen as a more appealing way to reach players.
Why the reluctance? Developers point to a handful of persistent issues. Publishing a game on the Xbox PC platform is often described as more complicated than on Steam or Epic, involving dual license management and a more cumbersome approval process—a significant burden for smaller teams. Even with over 1,000 Play Anywhere titles available, that’s still only a fraction of what’s on offer through Valve’s marketplace. And many high-profile AAA games are conspicuously absent, despite internal Microsoft titles like Ninja Gaiden 4 and The Outer Worlds 2 benefiting from the feature.
Watch Moore’s Law Is Dead break it all down here.
🔮 What does this mean for Project Helix?
According to MLID, the Play Anywhere push “seems like more groundwork is being laid” for Project Helix—Microsoft’s rumoured hybrid console.
Here’s what we know so far. Project Helix is expected to run on a version of Windows. At GDC 2026, Microsoft reportedly unveiled a new Game Development Kit (GDK) that gives developers the option to code exclusively for Helix. PC compatibility is said to require minimal extra work, but it’s not a mandatory requirement.
In Microsoft’s ideal scenario, most games would boot seamlessly on Helix, handheld gaming PCs, and various Windows devices. What remains unclear is whether Steam and other rival storefronts will be welcome on the platform. Either way, the company clearly wants to lure publishers to its own storefront—and it’s apparently so eager that it’s willing to sacrifice earnings to make that happen.
📉 The numbers problem
Even with the new incentives, Microsoft faces an uphill battle.
Xbox Play Anywhere currently boasts over 1,000 games. That sounds impressive until you compare it to Steam’s catalogue, which runs into the tens of thousands. The PS Store similarly offers a much deeper library of both indie gems and blockbuster AAA titles.
Some developers have also expressed reluctance to maintain a separate version of their game just to support Play Anywhere’s cross-platform features. The extra work, combined with the smaller audience reach, simply hasn’t been worth the investment for many studios.
And the stakes are high. Without convincing sceptics, the new Xbox console may struggle to gain traction. An analyst has previously warned that Project Helix “will fail unless [the] new Xbox console wins war vs Steam Machine.”
🧩 The bigger picture
Microsoft’s strategy here isn’t new. The company has long tried to bridge the gap between its console and PC ecosystems. But this latest move—offering a bigger revenue share for early sales—signals a growing urgency.
With the handheld gaming PC market heating up and Project Helix on the horizon, Microsoft knows it can’t afford to be the platform that developers ignore. Steam is too entrenched. The PS Store is too attractive. And gamers have too many options to settle for a library that feels incomplete.
Whether the revenue-sharing gamble pays off remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: Microsoft is willing to take a financial hit now, in the hope of building a more compelling ecosystem for the future.
Sources: Moore’s Law Is Dead (YouTube), Notebookcheck, Windows Central, Circana analyst Matt Piscatella