Steam vs. Mircosoft (Xbox)

User Support Hub Hardware & Peripherals
1

I’m really torn on where I should finally purchase.

I do like the idea of it being part of my Steam library, but if future add ons are purchased in-game from MS anyway, does it make more sense to just have the one account for all this FS2020?

I’m thinking loooooong term, will there be any ramifications one way or the other?

2

Shouldn’t matter much at all - the one benefit you get from Steam is less of a headache installing the launcher. MS Store can be a pain sometimes.

I’m a long-time Steam user, but I got FS2020 on the MS store so I wouldn’t have to keep Steam running in the background. Haven’t noticed any issues because of it.

3

I went the MS store way … I’m loving it.

… just as @Zachry8600 hought :wink:

Have fun

4

from a general feel I get from the forums (and I don’t read every thread, so I might be wrong) it seems to me that Steam users experience less problems with updates in general. Might be because there’s less reliance on your Xbox account connected with the MS Store.

I’m a very content Steam user, and I seem to have dodged a lot of the issues that some MS Store users have been experiencing (as long as you NEVER click on the ‘verify file integrity’ option in Steam).

5

So I may date myself by asking this question but… what is Steam? And why does it seem to better to get FS there than on the FS website or Xbox site? I also read some posts mentioning Discord. No idea what this is either and whether it’s necessary.
Can someone shed some light pls?
Last time I used FS was about 15 years ago and I’m about to buy a new PC just for this new version but clearly, it seems like there is more to it than just buying the software.
I welcome any tips I can get.
Thanks.

6

Steam is an online shop for computer games (the biggest one). You can buy FS on Steam or the Microsoft Store.

Disscord is a popular App for Voice and Text Chat. You can use it to communicate with your friends. Some use it also as a forum software.

7

Steam and the Store helps you to download a tiny launcher (1GB). After that, it’s the same. You have to connect to Xbox Live in both version; Marketplace purchase is in-game tied to your Xbox Live account, and all the packages (100GB) are downloaded by the launcher so doesn’t matter if it is Steam and Store. Both have its own share of bugs and issues, but Asobo has fixed many.

There are some differences that I usually hear about:

  • Steam version allows you to mess with the launcher itself. So if you want to do that, Steam is the way to go. By the way, accessing to launcher has nothing to do with all the mods, liveries, additional aircraft, sceneries. Those are all in a separate package folder.
  • Store version is Xbox Anywhere game, which mean you don’t have to purchase again for Xbox. So if you are interested in Xbox or Game Pass, Store is the way to go. Actually with Game Pass you don’t have to buy the base game, so that’s a good way to try out the Store path too.
8

Thanks. Much clearer now.