Quantum Break comes to Windows 10 amid Microsoft's cross-platform push

Microsoft seems to be following through on its long-promised vision of a cross-platform future, announcing today that Remedy's upcoming Xbox One game Quantum Break will now see a concurrent release on Windows 10, and folks who pre-order the Xbox One version will get a copy of the Windows 10 version for free.

Given that Quantum Break has long been branded an "Xbox exclusive" this deal seems to notably loosen what, exactly, Microsoft means when it uses that kind of language.

It's also a minor about-face in light of remarks made by company chief Phil Spencer last summer, when he told PC Gamer that "I definitely want to build out our Windows games portfolio" but that Xbox One "exclusives" were unlikely to come to Windows because "we started those games before we really looked at expanding into Windows in the way that I wanted."

The fact that the company is seeding free copies of Quantum Break on Windows 10 to people who buy the Xbox One game or its associated Xbox One console bundle is well in line with Spencer's stated aims to promote Windows 10 as a viable game platform, something Microsoft has already done by (among other things) making the Xbox Live SDK available for Windows 10 developers.

Incidentally, Microsoft is also bundling free digital copies of Remedy's Alan Wake and its DLC for Xbox 360 (playable on the Xbox One via its backwards compatibiliy feature) with Xbox One copies of Quantum Break. The two games are both heavily inspired by Remedy's appreciation for television and film, something you can read more about in Gamasutra's 2015 conversation with Remedy frontman Sam Lake.