[vetinari]

1. Then a game console is not much relevant either.

2. Age of Empires is Microsoft's game in the first place. Of course they will want their assets to use their technologies. 3rd party adoption is a rounding error. On the PC, except for 1) hardcore indie games players and 2) games locked to the publisher's platform, everyone uses Steam. In the second case, where the games are exclusive to a publishing platforms (Origin, Uplay), they have similar attitude to Windows store as Steam.

Windows store is an existential threat to them. They will ignore it as long as possible.

3. Sure, that's why I mentioned The Talos Principle (a puzzle game). Xbox API will be handled exactly as PS API is.