Former Valve employee now works for Microsoft

Microsoft has announced that it has added former Valve employee, Jason Holtman, to its books.

Holtman will be working in the Gaming department, having previously been a key player at Valve, particularly in the growth of Steam and being the primary contact for game developers, big and small, who wanted their products on the Steam platform.

Microsoft’s Xbox One was announced with the incredible ambition of being a direct competitor to major software distributor Valve, using the Xbox Live network to turn all One buyers to digital distribution.

However, the idea wasn’t well-received by all fans and the company’s policies regarding independent developers and their treatment of smaller game studios showed that it had a long way to go to become truly developer-friendly.

Jason Holtman

Speaking in a brief interview with Games Industry, Holtman confirmed that he was going to be doing similar work for Microsoft, but declined to go into any great detail.

“Yes, I have joined Microsoft where I will be focusing on making Windows a great platform for gaming and interactive entertainment,” he said. “I think there is a lot of opportunity for Microsoft to deliver the games and entertainment customers want and to work with developers to make that happen, so I’m excited to be here.”

Holtman has been a major supporter for digital distribution and has equally been vocal about intrusive DRM (digital rights management) policies that hurt the experience of the end-user. He has been credited as the driving force that ultimately managed to get games published by EA, Activision and similarly large publishers to use Steam to drive their sales.

The move may signal that Microsoft is taking gaming more seriously than it has in the past and may be trying to get more games onto their own digital distribution platform for Windows desktops.

In particular, the Windows Store may be their gateway into the piles of money that companies like Valve, EA and Ubisoft seem to be making and someone with the experience any ability of Holtman’s calibre may just be the thing they need to succeed in that department.