What would Happen If Microsoft and Steam Became Partners?

A few days ago we saw Microsoft release 'Rise of the Tomb Raider' through Windows Store, which shows that the Store could finally have a proper use rather than to just peddle a selection of cheap tack software and games.

The problem is though, let's say you have a new user who's completely new to gaming. Without a games collection already, they could buy this game through the Windows Store and all would be well, except the problem is that it's only one game. If they wanted to buy any other decent games later on, then they would have to buy them elsewhere anyway, because they're not available in Windows Store. So that kinda goes against the point of a Digital Store, as it will split the users game collection.

If on the other-hand you have a user who's not new to gaming and already has games on Steam, then they're also not going to want to buy this through Windows Store either, as it's only one game and all their other games are already stored on Steam. Therefore, there would be little point in splitting their collection and thus would just buy it through Steam anyway.

Obviously Microsoft could in theory just fill their store with decent games (and software), which although would draw in people who don't already have a game collection, it's too late for the vast majority of PC gamers who already have all their games on Steam.

So, I wonder what would happen if Microsoft and Steam to formed a partnership?

From Microsoft's perspective, it would overcome the problem of people who have already invested in Steam and already have their games on there (which is a lot of PC gamers).

From Steam's perspective, it would mean they get to have a store front pre-installed on every Windows 10 device and also they'd be able to offload a bulk of their digital store costs to Microsoft.

From a consumers perspective, it would be easy to buy games through the Windows Store without having to split their current game collection, they wouldn't need to install any third-party software as the Store and update mechanism's are already built into Windows, they get to keep all their games and software in one place which makes it easier when it comes to re-installing Windows or buying a new PC/device. And if 'Buy Once, Play Anywhere' is introduced, then it would mean they'd be able to buy a game and install it on any of their devices that they're signed into (I.E. Xbox, PC and even phone in the future when we all have i7 x64 Windows phones in our pockets :) )

Admittedly, I'm not a hardcore gamer, so my point-of-view is a layman's view, but could this be feasible? Both companies have something that would be useful to the other and surely two companies working together would be more efficient than both working against each other?

Stephanie said:

OS - Steamsoft 11 x64 :)

That's somewhat more catchier than MicroSoon.

Here's what I think would happen. Microsoft would charge steam $10 for each game purchased through the Microsoft digital store and Steam would charge Microsoft $10 for each game purchased for the increased digital store traffic - and Joe User would end up paying $20 more for each game.