Phil Spencer says that third-party stores, such as the Epic Games Store or itch.io, may appear on Xbox

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said that the company is open to the idea of hosting third-party stores on the Xbox console, such as Epic Games Store or itch.io, Polygon reports.

Spencer did not mention Steam, but it is unlikely that this is due to some fundamental impossibility of Valve’s store appearing on Xbox.

As part of the abandonment of the exclusivity policy, Microsoft has already released two of its games – Hi-Fi RUSH and Pentiment – on competitors’ platforms. Grounded on Playstation 4/5 and Nintendo Switch and Sea of Thieves on Playstation 5 are also planned for release.

As it can be understood, the head of Xbox does not plan to stop there. At GDC, Spencer said that this shift is intended to help reignite industry growth by making more games available to more people on more platforms-something that younger gamers tend to take for granted.