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Quantum Break Won’t Be Sold On Steam
Last week, Microsoft dropped a surprise announcement that Xbox One exclusive Quantum Break is now simply a “console exclusive.” The Remedy-developed game is coming to PC, but don’t expect to play it natively in your Steam library.
On Major Nelson’s podcast this week, Larry Hryb spoke with head of Xbox games marketing Aaron Greenberg about the announcement. Hryb took the opportunity to surface a couple of popular questions put forward by the community.
According to Greenberg, if you want Quantum Break on PC, you’ll need to purchase it directly from Microsoft. “Quantum Break on Windows 10 is a Windows Store exclusive,” he says.
There might be a couple of reasons for this. The first is that the game supports cross-save functions. Microsoft is also looking at Quantum Break as a single experience across Xbox One and PC.
“It is one game with shared saves,” Greenberg explains. “The way that works is if you unlock an achievement, it doesn’t matter where do it. It is one set of achievements.”
Quantum Break also requires Windows 10. The specifications for the game lay out minimum, recommended, and ultra requirements. All three demand Microsoft’s latest operating system, most likely because of DirectX 12.
Here’s what you’ll need to run Remedy’s latest:
Minimum
- OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
- DirectX: DirectX 12
- CPU: Intel Core i5-4460, 2.7 GHz or AMD FX-6300
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 or AMD Radeon R7 260x
- VRAM: 2 GB
- RAM: 8 GB
Recommended
- OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
- DirectX: DirectX 12
- CPU: Intel Core i5-4690, 3.9 GHz or AMD Equivalent
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon R9 390
- VRAM: 4 GB
- RAM: 16 GB
Ultra
- OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
- DirectX: DirectX 12
- CPU: Intel Core i7-4790, 4GHz or AMD Equivalent
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti or AMD Radeon R9 Fury X
- VRAM: 6 GB
- RAM: 16 GB
Those that purchase Quantum Break on Xbox One will get the PC version (and some other goodies) at no additional cost. For more on Quantum Break, check out our coverage from the December 2015 issue.
[Source: Major Nelson]
Our Take
With the Windows 10 requirement and the cross-save feature, I’m not entirely surprised that Microsoft is keeping things locked down a bit. This could change in the future, games come to Steam later all the time. But if you want to jump in at launch on PC, the Windows Store is your only option.
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